Author: Clow

Produced by: Plain Language Blockchain

It took nearly a decade for a Bitcoin ETF to be approved, while altcoins only took six months.

In November 2025, something incredible happened on Wall Street. Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin—these altcoins that were once regarded as "speculative toys" by mainstream finance—suddenly listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq in just a few weeks, transforming themselves into regulated ETF products.

Even more surreal is that these ETFs did not undergo rigorous approval by the SEC one by one. Instead, they were automatically approved by regulators almost without their consent, thanks to a new set of "general listing standards" and a little-known "Section 8(a)" fast track.

The rules of the game are being completely rewritten.

01. The "Strategic Abandonment" of Regulation

For a long time, the SEC's attitude toward cryptocurrency ETFs can be summarized in four words: delay as much as possible.

Every new cryptocurrency ETF application requires the exchange to submit a rule change request, which the SEC reviews for up to 240 days, often rejecting applications before the deadline on the grounds of "market manipulation risk." This kind of "enforcement regulation" leaves countless applications hanging in the balance.

But on September 17, 2025, everything suddenly changed.

The SEC approved the proposed revisions to the "Common Listing Standards" put forward by the three major exchanges. This seemingly technical adjustment actually opens a door for altcoin ETFs: crypto assets that meet certain conditions can be listed directly without individual approval.

The core admission criteria are simple:

• Alternatively, the asset must have at least six months of trading history in a futures market regulated by the CFTC, and the exchange must have a monitoring agreement with that market.
• Alternatively, there may be existing ETFs in the market that hold at least 40% exposure to this asset.

If altcoins meet any one of these criteria, they can be put on the "fast track." Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin all happen to meet the criteria.

Even more radical, publishers have found another “accelerator” – Clause 8(a).

Traditional ETF applications typically include a "delayed revision" clause, allowing the SEC to review them indefinitely. However, in the fourth quarter of 2025, issuers such as Bitwise and Franklin Templeton began removing this clause from their applications.

Under Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, if the registration statement does not have a delayed effective language, the document will automatically become effective 20 days after submission unless the SEC initiates a stop order.

This is like giving the SEC a choice: either find sufficient reasons to halt the product within 20 days, or watch it launch automatically.

Due to staff shortages caused by the government shutdown, coupled with the pressure from legal rulings in cases such as Ripple and Grayscale, the SEC was almost unable to handle the backlog of hundreds of applications. More importantly, on January 20, 2025, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler resigned, leaving the entire regulatory agency in a "lame duck" state.

Publishers seized this once-in-a-lifetime window of opportunity and went on a frenzied push.

02. Solana ETF: A Bold Attempt at Leveraged Returns

Solana, leveraging the technological advantages of its high-performance public blockchain, has become the third "blue-chip" asset to be ETF-ized, following BTC and ETH.

As of November 2025, six Solana ETFs have been listed, including Bitwise's BSOL, Grayscale's GSOL, and VanEck's VSOL. Among them, Bitwise's BSOL is the most aggressive—it not only provides SOL price exposure but also attempts to distribute on-chain rewards to investors through a staking mechanism.

This is a bold attempt. The SEC has long considered staking services as securities offerings, but Bitwise explicitly labeled it a "Staking ETF" in its S-1 filing, attempting to design a compliant structure to distribute staking rewards. If successful, this would allow the Solana ETF to not only capture price increases but also provide a "dividend-like" cash flow, making it far more attractive than a non-yielding Bitcoin ETF.

Another point of contention is that Solana does not have futures contracts on the CME. According to the SEC's historical logic, this should have been a reason for rejection. However, the regulators ultimately gave the green light, possibly indicating that they recognized the long trading history of regulated exchanges like Coinbase as sufficient for efficient price discovery.

The market performance was equally impressive.

According to SoSoValue data, the Solana ETF has recorded net inflows for 20 consecutive days since its launch, accumulating $568 million. While Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs faced large-scale net outflows in November, the Solana ETF bucked the trend and attracted funds. As of the end of November, the total assets under management of the six Solana funds reached $843 million, representing approximately 1.09% of the market capitalization of SOL.

This indicates that institutional funds are rotating assets, withdrawing from crowded Bitcoin trading and seeking emerging assets with higher beta and growth potential.

03. XRP ETF: Value Reassessment Following Regulatory Settlement

XRP's path to becoming an ETF had been hampered by the legal dispute between Ripple Labs and the SEC. After the two parties reached a settlement in August 2025, the sword of Damocles hanging over XRP finally fell, and ETF applications surged.

As of November, five XRP ETFs have been listed or are about to be listed:

• Bitwise's XRP ETF was launched on November 20, using "XRP" directly as its trading code. This bold marketing strategy has sparked controversy—some see it as a stroke of genius, allowing retail investors to easily locate it when searching; others criticize it for confusing the underlying asset with the derivative fund.
• Canary's XRPC went public on November 13, attracting a record $243 million in inflows on its first day.
• Grayscale's GXRP went public on November 24, converted from a trust, eliminating the premium/discount issue.

Despite strong initial capital inflows, XRP prices came under short-term pressure after the ETF's listing. In the days following the Bitwise ETF's listing, XRP prices fell by approximately 7.6%, at one point dropping by over 18%.

This is a classic example of "buy the rumor, sell the fact" behavior. Speculative funds buy in advance when the expectation of ETF approval is forming, and then take profits after the news is released. Macroeconomic factors (such as strong employment data leading to a weakening of expectations for interest rate cuts) also suppressed the overall performance of risk assets.

In the long run, however, the ETF has introduced sustained passive buying for XRP. Data shows that the XRP ETF has seen a net inflow of over $587 million since its launch. Speculators are withdrawing, but institutional funds are entering the market, building a higher long-term bottom for XRP prices.

04. Dogecoin ETF: From Meme to Asset Class

The ETFification of Dogecoin marks a significant turning point: Wall Street is beginning to accept "Memecoin," based on community consensus and network effects, as a legitimate investment.

There are currently three Dogecoin-related products:

• Grayscale's GDOG went on sale on November 24;
• Bitwise's BWOW application has been submitted in 8(a) and is awaiting automatic approval;
• 21Shares' TXTXD is a 2x leverage product designed for investors with a high risk tolerance.

Market reaction was relatively lukewarm. GDOG's first-day trading volume was only $1.41 million, with no net inflows. This may stem from the highly retail nature of Dogecoin's investor base—they prefer to hold tokens directly on exchanges rather than paying management fees through ETFs.

However, the market generally expects Bitwise's BWOW to activate institutional demand in this sector with its lower fees and stronger marketing capabilities.

05. The next wave: Litecoin, HBAR, and BNB

In addition to the three most popular altcoins, Litecoin, Hedera (HBAR), and BNB are also actively seeking ETFification.

As a code fork of Bitcoin, Litecoin is closest to BTC in terms of regulatory attributes and is considered a commodity. Canary Capital filed an application in October 2024 and submitted Form 8-A (the final step in exchange registration) on October 27, 2025, suggesting that the listing of an LTC ETF is imminent.

The HBAR ETF application was spearheaded by Canary, with Grayscale following suit. A key breakthrough was Coinbase Derivatives' launch of CFTC-regulated HBAR futures contracts in February 2025, providing the necessary regulatory market foundation for HBAR to meet the "general listing standards." Nasdaq has already filed a 19b-4 document for Grayscale, indicating that HBAR is highly likely to be the next approved asset.

BNB is the most challenging attempt. VanEck filed an S-1 application for VBNB, but given the close ties between BNB and the Binance exchange, and Binance's previous complex entanglements with US regulators, the BNB ETF is considered the ultimate test of the regulatory standards of the new SEC leadership.

06. The "Crypto Multiplier" Effect: A Double-Edged Sword of Liquidity

The launch of altcoin ETFs is not just about increasing investment codes, but also about changing the entire market through structured capital flows.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has proposed the concept of the "Crypto Multiplier," suggesting that the market capitalization of crypto assets responds non-linearly to capital inflows. For altcoins, whose liquidity is far lower than Bitcoin's, institutional funds flowing into ETFs could generate significant price shocks.

According to Kaiko data, Bitcoin's recent 1% market depth is approximately $535 million, while most altcoins have a market depth of only a fraction of that. This means that an equivalent inflow of funds (such as the $105 million on the first day of the Bitwise XRP ETF) should theoretically have a much greater impact on the price of XRP than on BTC.

The current "sell the fact" phenomenon masks this effect. Market makers need to buy spot assets during the initial ETF subscription period, but if market sentiment is generally bearish, they may use the futures market to short hedge or digest inventory in the over-the-counter market, thus suppressing spot price increases in the short term.

However, as ETF assets accumulate, this passive buying will gradually drain the exchange's liquidity, leading to more volatile prices in the future, with an upward bias.

07. Market Segmentation: A New Valuation System

The launch of ETFs has exacerbated liquidity stratification in the crypto market:

Tier 1 (ETF assets): BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE. These assets have compliant fiat currency access, and can be allocated without barriers by Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and pension funds. They will enjoy a "compliance premium" and lower liquidity risk.

The second tier (non-ETF assets): other Layer 1 and DeFi tokens. Due to the lack of ETF access, these assets will continue to rely on retail funds and on-chain liquidity, and their correlation with mainstream assets may decrease, facing the risk of marginalization.

This divergence will reshape the valuation logic of the entire crypto market, shifting from speculative-driven to multi-polar valuations based on compliance channels and institutional allocation.

08. Summary

The altcoin ETF wave at the end of 2025 marks a decisive step for crypto assets from "fringe speculation" to "mainstream allocation".

By cleverly utilizing the "General Listing Standard" and "Section 8(a)", issuers successfully breached the SEC's defenses, bringing previously controversial assets such as Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin to regulated exchanges.

This not only provides these assets with a compliant funding channel, but more importantly, it provides a de facto legal confirmation of the "non-securities" nature of these assets.

Despite short-term profit-taking pressure, structural capital inflows will inevitably push up the valuations of these "digital commodities" as institutional investors begin to allocate 1%-5% of their portfolios to these assets in their models.

In the next 6-12 months, we will see more assets (such as Avalanche and Chainlink) attempt to replicate this path.

In the multipolar crypto market, ETFs will become the most important dividing line between "core assets" and "peripheral assets".

For investors, this transformation brings not only investment opportunities, but also a complete restructuring of the market landscape: a market that was once driven by speculation and narrative is evolving into a new order anchored by compliance channels and institutional allocation.

This process is already irreversible.