- Investor sentiment remains bearish for Solana amid growing fears of global economic instability and U.S. political developments.
- The SEC has officially acknowledged Fidelity’s application for a Solana-based ETF, triggering a 280-day review period.
Solana (SOL) price remained on its decline early Friday morning in the Asian markets, losing over 3% as bearish pressure is building. The crypto, which is a major Layer 1 blockchain token, is trading at about $115 and extended its weekly loss to over 15%. The fall comes amidst widespread fears in the crypto market fueled by upcoming macroeconomic problems and a significant token unlock event that has gained investors’ interest.
Solana Price & Token Unlocks
A significant factor weighing on Solana’s price is a massive upcoming unlock of staked tokens from four large wallets. On X, on-chain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence has revealed that approximately $200 million worth of SOL is scheduled to be released on Friday. This is the largest one-day SOL token unlock until 2028.
The wallets in question initially staked a total of 1.79 million SOL back in April 2021, when the tokens’ value was much lower. Arkham’s statistics put the holdings’ appreciation at around 5.5 times their original staking. The planned unlock has raised alarms of a forthcoming surge in selling pressure. As fresh supply hits the market and demand fails to keep up, traders worry that prices could be subjected to further headwinds.
Market analysts are keenly watching if the released tokens will be transferred to exchanges, which would indicate plans to liquidate. This has been added to by an uptick in worldwide economic fear that has destabilized the market mood.
Market mood on risk assets, such as cryptocurrencies, has become bearish in relation to U.S. political developments. More precisely, investor apprehensions have escalated on account of the possibility of disruption to trade emanating from Donald Trump’s just-proposed symmetric tariff policy initiatives, as mentioned in our previous post. Macro-tension spillover has benefited crypto by propagating the selloff to various tokens — including Solana.
SOL ETF Regulatory Scene
Among the downward pressure, there was also a regulatory event that might shape SOL’s long-term direction. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially recognized a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) application for Solana, as highlighted in our previous report.
The filing, made by Cboe on behalf of investment giant Fidelity, seeks the introduction of the “Fidelity Solana Fund.” The SEC’s notice begins the clock on a 280-day review period, within which the agency will determine the approval or denial of the application.
Fidelity’s ETF filing adds to an increasing number of comparable filings from large financial institutions such as Grayscale, Bitwise, VanEck, 21Shares, and Canary Capital. Although these events have the ability to influence SOL’s institutional status, the near-term market response continues to center on short-term supply and macroeconomic volatility. For now, Solana traders are preparing for increased volatility as the unlock event approaches and sentiment broadly continues to remain fragile.
