The Great Staking Gambit: Nasdaq’s JitoSOL ETF Saga Unfolds!

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In the grand theater of financial machinations, Nasdaq, that most industrious of stagehands, has once again taken its place before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), proffering a rule change with all the solemnity of a priest offering incense. The object of this ritual? The Vaneck JitoSOL ETF, a creature announced on the 22nd of August, 2025, as the first Solana [SOL] Spot ETF to be “backed entirely by a liquid staking token (LST),” a phrase that sounds far more sophisticated than the simple alchemy of turning one cryptocurrency into another while pretending you’ve invented money.

Liquid staking, that modern parlor trick of crypto, allows users to deposit their SOL and receive JitoSOL in return-a token so cleverly named it might have been coined by a bard drunk on optimism. These JitoSOL tokens, one might trade them on exchanges, all while the original SOL continues to generate rewards like a clockwork squirrel in a wheel. One need not run validators or manage chains; simply hand over your coins and trust that the system, like a bridge over a crocodile pit, will hold.

Correlation data cited to show JitoSOL as analogous to SOL

The Nasdaq filing, with all the bureaucratic flourish of a coronation, seeks to list the Vaneck JitoSOL ETF, which would hold JitoSOL directly. Under the aegis of Nasdaq Rule 5711(d)-a rule so obscure it might as well be written in runes-the exchange argues that JitoSOL is “economically comparable” to SOL. How, you ask? By citing correlations so high they make a lemur jealous: 0.9979 on OKX and 0.9985 on Coinbase. In other words, JitoSOL and SOL are as alike as two peas in a pod-assuming the pod is a spreadsheet and the peas are decimal points.

With such correlations, the SEC is assured that the JitoSOL ETF poses no new risks, as if the market needed more products to gamble with. The SEC now has 45 days to decide, though it may take 90, a delay as thrilling as watching paint dry in a library. Brian Smith of the Jito Foundation, ever the optimist, assures us that staking rewards will “reflect on the fund’s net asset value,” a promise as comforting as a teapot in a hurricane.

JitoSOL’s journey to this filing was, according to their tale, months of “collaborative policy outreach” with the SEC-a euphemism that makes one imagine polite emails and the occasional offering of donuts. Yet, no liquid staking token fund currently trades in the U.S., a fact that might raise an eyebrow or two, like finding a cat wearing a top hat.

Meanwhile, others have already danced on the stage: the REX-Osprey ETFs for Solana and Ethereum, and Grayscale’s recent foray into staking. Perhaps the SEC’s 45-day review will conclude that the world needs yet another ETF, or perhaps it will realize that the only thing more infinite than the blockchain is human folly.

Final Summary

  • Nasdaq’s filing to the SEC seeks to list the Vaneck JitoSOL ETF, a financial contraption as elegant as a pocket watch made of smoke.
  • JitoSOL’s near-perfect correlation to SOL suggests they are as similar as a duck to a platypus-both birds, yet neither quite.

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2026-02-27 20:07