Coinbase has launched Solana futures contracts on its regulated US derivatives exchange, the cryptocurrency trading platform said on Feb. 19. Regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Coinbase’s Solana (SOL) futures contracts aim to hasten SOL institutional adoption and may help pave the way for an eventual SOL exchange-traded fund (ETF) launch in the US. Coinbase has also launched futures for Hedera (HBAR), the native currency for Hedera’s hashgraph distributed ledger, it said in a Feb. 19 blog post. “This milestone represents another step forward in the regulatory evolution of crypto derivatives in the United States, reinforcing the legitimacy and growing demand for digital assets,” according to Coinbase. Coinbase’s SOL futures products include standard contracts representing 100 SOL and retail-oriented “nano” contracts representing 5 SOL each, or less than $1,000 as of Feb. 19.
Progress toward SOL ETFs
Futures contracts are standardized agreements to buy or sell an underlying asset at a future date. They play a crucial supporting role for spot cryptocurrency ETFs because regulated futures markets provide a stable benchmark for measuring a digital asset’s performance. At least five ETF issuers have filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to list spot Solana ETFs. The regulator has until October 2025 to make a final decision on the filings. Bloomberg Intelligence gauges the likelihood that SOL ETFs are ultimately approved at approximately 70%. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas expects an ETF using futures to synthetically track SOL’s performance to come as soon as March.
Burgeoning markets
US regulators are softening their stance on crypto oversight after Donald Trump — who has promised to turn the US into the “world’s crypto capital” — prevailed in the US elections and then started his presidential term on Jan. 20. In 2024, asset managers submitted a flurry of regulatory filings to list ETFs holding altcoins, including SOL, XRP (XRP) and Litecoin (LTC), among others. The SEC has approved spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETFs, as well as ETFs holding a weighted index of those two cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency derivatives products have experienced rapid growth, with volumes soaring roughly 10,950% in 2024, Coinbase said in December. The exchange launched its derivatives platform in the US in 2022, bringing cryptocurrency futures — including retail-friendly nano Bitcoin and nano Ether contracts — to tens of millions of US users. Coinbase lists more than half a dozen futures contracts, including contracts tied to memecoins — such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) — and commodities such as oil and gold.