The
information in this Preliminary Prospectus is not complete and may be changed.
We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This Preliminary Prospectus is
not an offer to sell these securities and it is not soliciting an offer to buy
these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not
permitted.
Subject
to Completion
Preliminary Prospectus dated November 28, 2025
PRELIMINARY
PROSPECTUS
INVESCO
GALAXY SOLANA ETF
COMMON
SHARES
Invesco Galaxy Solana ETF
(the “Trust”) is an exchange-traded fund that issues common shares of beneficial
interest (the “Shares”) that trade on Cboe BZX (“Cboe” or the “Exchange”) under
the ticker symbol “QSOL”. The Trust’s investment objective is to reflect the
performance of the spot price of Solana (“SOL”) as measured using Lukka Prime
Solana Reference Rate (the “Benchmark”), as adjusted to reflect the SOL staking
rewards earned by the Trust and the Trust’s expenses and other liabilities. The
Trust expects to outperform the Benchmark before taking its expenses and
liabilities into account due to its plans to receive SOL staking rewards.
In seeking to achieve its
investment objective, the Trust will hold SOL and will seek to stake
substantially all of its SOL to earn staking rewards to the extent the Trust, in
the Sponsor’s sole discretion, can engage in staking without undue legal or
regulatory risk, including jeopardizing its status as a grantor trust for U.S.
federal income tax purposes (the “Staking Condition”). The Sponsor has
determined that the Staking Condition has been satisfied. As of the date of this
Prospectus, the Sponsor intends to engage in staking on behalf of the Trust of
substantially all of the Trust's SOL, subject to an amount that it determines to
maintain as unstaked SOL to manage liquidity (“Liquidity Sleeve”). The Trust
will value its Shares each day when the Exchange is open for regular trading (a
“Business Day”) as of 4:00 p.m. ET. The value of SOL held by the Trust is
determined based on the fair market value (“FMV”) price for SOL, reflecting the
execution price of SOL on its principal market as determined each day by Lukka
Inc., an independent third-party digital asset data company (the “Benchmark
Provider”). The Benchmark is designed to provide an estimated fair market value
price for SOL, based on the execution price of SOL on its principal market. In
this regard, the Benchmark Provider seeks to identify a “principal market” for
SOL each day by evaluating eligible SOL trading platforms across a variety of
different criteria, including the trading platforms’ oversight and governance
frameworks, microstructure efficiency, trading volume, data transparency and
data integrity. Invesco Capital Management LLC (the “Sponsor” or “Invesco”) is
the sponsor of the Trust, CSC Delaware Trust Company (the “Trustee”) is the
trustee of the Trust, The Bank of New York Mellon is the Trust’s transfer agent
(“Transfer Agent”) and will hold all of the Trust’s cash on the Trust’s behalf
as cash custodian (“Cash Custodian”), and Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC
(the “Solana Custodian”) will hold all of the Trust’s SOL on the Trust’s behalf
as custodian.
The Trust intends to issue
Shares on a continuous basis and is registering an indeterminate number of
Shares with the SEC in accordance with Rule 456(d) and 457(u) under the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). The Trust will
process all creations and redemptions of Shares in transactions with financial
firms that are authorized to do so (known as “Authorized Participants”).
When the Trust creates or redeems its Shares, it will do so in cash or
in-kind. When the Trust issues or redeems its Shares, it does so only in
blocks of 5,000 Shares (a “Creation Basket”) based on the quantity of SOL
attributable to each Share of the Trust (net of accrued but unpaid Sponsor fees
and any accrued but unpaid expenses or liabilities).
Creations and redemption
transactions will be conducted in exchange for SOL in-kind or cash.
When purchasing Creation
Baskets in-kind with SOL, Authorized Participants and/or their
designees will deliver SOL to the Solana Custodian. After confirming receipt of
the SOL by the Solana Custodian, the Transfer Agent is authorized by the Sponsor
to issue Creation Baskets of Shares to the creating Authorized Participant in
satisfaction of the creation order.
When purchasing Creation
Baskets for cash, Authorized Participants will deliver cash to the Cash
Custodian. Galaxy Digital Funds LLC (the “Execution Agent”) will be responsible
for acquiring the requisite amount of SOL on behalf of the Trust on an agency
basis. Once the Execution Agent selects a counterparty or digital asset trading
platform (“Solana Counterparty”), the Cash Custodian will transfer cash to the
Solana Counterparty in payment for the requisite amount of SOL on behalf of the
Trust on an agency basis on the value date of the order. The SOL acquired from
the Solana Counterparty will be transferred to the Solana Custodian. After
receipt of the SOL by the Solana Custodian, the Transfer Agent will issue
Creation Baskets of Shares to the creating Authorized Participant in
satisfaction of the creation order.
When redeeming Creation
Baskets in-kind for SOL, the Transfer Agent will redeem the Shares and
the Solana Custodian will distribute the resulting SOL to the redeeming
Authorized Participant and/or its designee in satisfaction of the redemption
order.
When redeeming Creation
Baskets for cash, the Execution Agent will be responsible for selling the
requisite amount of SOL on behalf of the Trust on an agency basis. Once the
Execution Agent selects a Solana Counterparty, the Solana Custodian will
transfer SOL to the Solana Counterparty in return for the requisite cash
payment. The cash received from the Solana Counterparty will be delivered to the
Cash Custodian. After receipt of the cash payment, the Transfer Agent will
redeem the Shares and the Cash Custodian will distribute the resulting cash to
the redeeming Authorized Participant in satisfaction of the redemption
order.
In connection with both
cash creation and cash redemption transactions, the Execution Agent, pursuant to
the oversight of the Sponsor, will decide how and with which Solana Counterparty
to transact on the Trust’s behalf.
The Trust expects to
purchase or sell SOL in connection with cash creation and redemption
transactions, and to sell SOL to pay certain expenses, including the Sponsor Fee
and to liquidate staking rewards for cash to pay quarterly distributions to
Shareholders. Each creating or redeeming Authorized Participant will be charged
(i) a transaction fee and (ii) transfer, processing and other transaction costs
charged by the Solana Custodian (the “Custody Transaction Fee”) in connection
with each creation or redemption transaction. Authorized Participants are
expected to sell Shares to the public at prices that reflect, among other
factors, the value of the Trust’s assets, supply and demand for the Shares and
market conditions at the time of a transaction.
The Sponsor seeks to stake
substantially all of the Trust’s assets through one or more trusted staking
providers (“Staking Provider”), except as necessary to (i) pay the Sponsor Fee
or other Trust expenses, (ii) satisfy existing and reasonably foreseen potential
redemption requests, (iii) address regulatory or tax concerns raised by staking
activities or (iv) to maintain unstaked SOL in the Liquidity Sleeve. Galaxy
Blockchain Infrastructure LLC, an affiliate of the Execution Agent, is
expected to serve as a Staking Provider with respect to the Trust’s SOL, though
the Sponsor may choose to engage additional staking providers in its sole
discretion. In consideration for any staking activity in which the Trust may
engage, the Trust would receive certain staking rewards of SOL tokens, which may
be treated as income for U.S. federal income tax purposes. The Trust will not
acquire and will disclaim any Incidental Right (as defined below) or Incidental
Right asset received, for example as a result of forks or airdrops, and such
assets will not be taken into account for purposes of determining the net asset
value per share (“NAV”). Holders of the Shares (“Shareholders”) who decide to
buy or sell Shares of the Trust will place their trade orders through their
brokers and may incur customary brokerage commissions and charges. Such trades
may occur at a premium or discount relative to the NAV of the Shares of the
Trust. The treatment of staking in a grantor trust for U.S. federal income tax
purposes is still developing. As a grantor trust, the Trust can undertake
only certain types of activities. Please see “Taxation of the Trust” below
for more details.
The Trust was seeded with
$100,000 on October 16, 2025, through the sale of 4,000 Shares at a per-Share
price of $25.00 (the “Initial Seed Shares”) by the Trust to Invesco Ltd. Invesco
Ltd. is expected to purchase five initial seed creation baskets, equal to 25,000
shares, before the Trust is listed on the Exchange at a price per Share based on
the Benchmark price as of 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the date of the transaction
(the “Seed Creation Baskets”). The Initial Seed Shares will be redeemed for cash
prior to the purchase of the Seed Creation Baskets.
Invesco Ltd. (“Invesco”
and, in such role, the “Seed Capital Investor”) has acted as a statutory
underwriter in connection with its purchase of the applicable shares. Invesco
may sell some or all of the shares underlying its purchases pursuant to the
registration statement for the Trust (Invesco Ltd., in such role, the “Selling
Shareholder”), which shares have been registered to permit the resale from time
to time after purchase. The Selling Shareholder may make a public offering of
the Shares held by it at a price per Share that will depend, among other
factors, on the net asset value per Share and the trading price of Shares on the
Exchange at the time of the offer. The price of Shares offered by the Selling
Shareholder was acquired by the Selling Shareholder as described in the
registration statement, and could be sold at different times and at different
offering prices. The Trust will not receive any of the proceeds from the resale
by the Selling Shareholder of these shares. The Selling Shareholder will not
receive any fee or other compensation from the Sponsor in connection with the
sale of the Shares. Prior to this offering, pursuant to this Prospectus, there
has been no public market for the Shares. The Shares are expected to be listed
for trading, subject to notice of issuance, on the Exchange under the ticker
symbol QSOL. Investing in the Trust involves risks similar to those involved
with an investment directly in SOL, as well as other significant risks. See
“Risk Factors” beginning on page 18.
The offering of the
Trust’s Shares is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the
“SEC”) in accordance with the Securities Act. The offering is intended to be a
continuous offering and is not expected to terminate until either all of the
registered Shares have been sold or three years from the date of the original
offering, whichever is earlier, unless extended as permitted by applicable rules
under the Securities Act. The Trust is not a mutual fund, is not registered
under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”) and is not
subject to regulation under the 1940 Act. The Trust is not a commodity pool for
purposes of the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936, as amended (the “CEA”), and the
Sponsor is not subject to regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
(the “CFTC”) as a commodity pool operator or a commodity trading advisor. The
Trust’s Shares are neither interests in, nor obligations of, the Sponsor or the
Trustee.
AN
INVESTMENT IN THE TRUST INVOLVES SIGNIFICANT RISKS AND MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR
SHAREHOLDERS THAT ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO ACCEPT RISKS RELATED TO SOLANA. THE
SHARES ARE SPECULATIVE SECURITIES. THEIR PURCHASE INVOLVES A HIGH DEGREE OF
RISK, AND YOU COULD LOSE YOUR ENTIRE INVESTMENT. YOU SHOULD CONSIDER ALL RISK
FACTORS BEFORE INVESTING IN THE TRUST. PLEASE REFER TO “RISK FACTORS” BEGINNING
ON PAGE 18.
THE
SHARES OF THE TRUST ARE NEITHER INTERESTS IN NOR OBLIGATIONS OF THE SPONSOR, THE
TRUSTEE, THE BENCHMARK PROVIDER, THE ADMINISTRATOR, THE TRANSFER AGENT, THE
EXECUTION AGENT, THE CASH CUSTODIAN, THE SOLANA CUSTODIAN, THE MARKETING AGENT
OR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE AFFILIATES. THE SHARES ARE NOT INSURED OR GUARANTEED
BY THE FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION OR ANY OTHER GOVERNMENTAL
AGENCY.
NEITHER
THE SEC NOR ANY STATE SECURITIES COMMISSION HAS APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED OF THE
SECURITIES OFFERED IN THIS PROSPECTUS, OR DETERMINED IF THIS PROSPECTUS IS
TRUTHFUL OR COMPLETE. ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY IS A CRIMINAL
OFFENSE.
THE
TRUST IS AN “EMERGING GROWTH COMPANY” AS THAT TERM IS USED IN THE JUMPSTART OUR
BUSINESS STARTUPS ACT AND, AS SUCH, MAY ELECT TO COMPLY WITH CERTAIN REDUCED
REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.
The date
of this Prospectus is December [__], 2025
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
|
STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS |
iii |
|
EMERGING GROWTH COMPANY STATUS |
iii |
|
PROSPECTUS SUMMARY |
1 |
|
RISK FACTORS |
18 |
|
SOLANA AND THE SOLANA MARKET |
67 |
|
CALCULATION OF NAV |
87 |
|
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE TRUST |
91 |
|
THE TRUST’S SERVICE PROVIDERS |
93 |
|
CUSTODY OF THE TRUST’S ASSETS |
98 |
|
THE PRIME BROKER |
102 |
|
FORM OF SHARES |
105 |
|
TRANSFER OF SHARES |
105 |
|
PLAN OF DISTRIBUTION |
106 |
|
CREATION AND REDEMPTION OF SHARES |
108 |
|
USE OF PROCEEDS |
117 |
|
OWNERSHIP OR BENEFICIAL INTEREST IN THE TRUST |
118 |
|
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST |
118 |
|
DUTIES OF THE SPONSOR |
120 |
|
LIABILITY AND INDEMNIFICATION |
121 |
|
VOTING BY SHAREHOLDERS; MANAGEMENT |
124 |
|
BOOKS AND RECORDS |
127 |
|
STATEMENTS, FILINGS, AND REPORTS TO SHAREHOLDERS |
127 |
|
FISCAL YEAR |
127 |
|
GOVERNING LAW; CONSENT TO DELAWARE JURISDICTION |
127 |
|
LEGAL MATTERS |
128 |
|
EXPERTS |
128 |
|
MATERIAL CONTRACTS |
128 |
|
U.S. FEDERAL INCOME TAX CONSEQUENCES |
135 |
|
PURCHASES BY EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS |
141 |
|
INFORMATION YOU SHOULD KNOW |
142 |
|
WHERE YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION |
143 |
|
INVESCO CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC PRIVACY NOTICE |
144 |
|
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM |
146 |
|
APPENDIX A GLOSSARY OF DEFINED TERMS |
A-1 |
|
PART II INFORMATION NOT REQUIRED IN PROSPECTUS |
II-1 |
This Prospectus contains
information you should consider when making an investment decision about the
Shares of the Trust. You may rely on the information contained in this
Prospectus. The Trust and the Sponsor have not authorized any person to provide
you with different information and, if anyone provides you with different or
inconsistent information, you should not rely on it. This Prospectus is not an
offer to sell the Shares in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale of the
Shares is not permitted.
The Shares of the Trust
are not registered for public sale in any jurisdiction other than the United
States (the “U.S.”).
STATEMENT
REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Prospectus includes
“forward-looking statements” that generally relate to future events or future
performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by
terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,”
“believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential” or the negative of these terms or
other comparable terminology. All statements (other than statements of
historical fact) included in this Prospectus that address activities, events or
developments that will or may occur in the future, including such matters as
movements in the digital asset markets, the Trust’s operations, the Sponsor’s
plans and references to the Trust’s future success and other similar matters,
are forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions. Actual
events or results may differ materially. These statements are based upon certain
assumptions and analyses the Sponsor has made based on its perception of
historical trends, technology developments regarding the use of SOL and other
digital assets, including the systems used by the Sponsor and the Trust’s Solana
Custodian in their provision of services to the Trust, current conditions and
expected future developments, as well as other factors appropriate in the
circumstances. Whether or not actual results and developments will conform to
the Sponsor’s expectations and predictions, however, is subject to a number of
risks and uncertainties, including the special considerations discussed in this
Prospectus, general economic, market and business conditions, changes in laws or
regulations, including those concerning taxes, made by governmental authorities
or regulatory bodies, and other economic and political developments.
Consequently, all the forward-looking statements made in this Prospectus are
qualified by these cautionary statements, and there can be no assurance that
actual results or developments the Sponsor anticipates will be realized or, even
if substantially realized, that they will result in the expected consequences
to, or have the expected effects on, the Trust’s operations or the value of its
Shares. None of the Trust, the Sponsor, or the Trustee or their respective
affiliates is under a duty to update any of the forward-looking statements to
conform such statements to actual results or to a change in the Sponsor’s
expectations or predictions, other than as required by applicable laws.
EMERGING
GROWTH COMPANY STATUS
The Trust is an “emerging
growth company” as that term is used in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act
(the “JOBS Act”) and, as such, may elect to comply with certain reduced
reporting requirements. For as long as the Trust is an emerging growth company,
unlike other public companies, it will not be required to:
|
• |
provide an auditor’s attestation report on management’s assessment of
the effectiveness of its system of internal control over financial
reporting pursuant to Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of
2002; |
|
• |
comply with any new requirements adopted by the Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”) requiring mandatory auditor rotation
or a supplement to the auditor’s report in which the auditor would be
required to provide additional information about the audit and the
financial statements of the issuer; |
|
• |
comply with any new audit rules adopted by the PCAOB after April 5,
2012, unless the Securities and Exchange Commission determines
otherwise; |
|
• |
provide certain disclosure regarding executive compensation required
of larger public companies; or |
|
• |
obtain shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not
previously approved. |
The Trust will cease to be
an “emerging growth company” upon the earliest of (i) when it has $1.235 billion
or more in annual revenues; (ii) when it is deemed to be a large accelerated
filer under Rule 12b-2 promulgated pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of
1934; (iii) when it issues more than $1.0 billion of
non-convertible debt over
a three-year period; or (iv) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth
anniversary of its initial public offering. In addition, Section 107 of
the JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of
the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities
Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an
emerging growth company can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards
until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies however, the
Trust is choosing to “opt out” of such extended transition period, and as a
result, the Trust will comply with new or revised accounting standards on the
relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for non-emerging
growth companies. Section 107 of the JOBS Act provides that the Trust’s decision
to opt out of the extended transition period for complying with new or revised
accounting standards is irrevocable.
INVESCO
GALAXY SOLANA ETF
TICKER: QSOL
CUSIP: 67122G106
PROSPECTUS
SUMMARY
This is only a summary of
the Prospectus and, while it contains material information about the Trust and
its Shares, it does not contain or summarize all of the information about the
Trust and the Shares contained in the Prospectus that is material and/or that
may be important to you. You should read this entire Prospectus before making an
investment decision about the Shares. For a glossary of defined terms, see
Appendix A.
As used below, “Solana” is
used to describe the system as a whole that is involved in maintaining the
ledger of Solana ownership and facilitating the transfer of SOL among parties.
“SOL” is used to refer to the digital asset within the Solana network.
Overview of
the Trust
Invesco Galaxy Solana ETF
(the “Trust”) is an exchange-traded fund that issues common shares of beneficial
interest (the “Shares”) that trade on Cboe BZX (“Cboe” or the “Exchange”) under
the ticker symbol QSOL.
Invesco Capital Management
LLC (the “Sponsor”) is the sponsor of the Trust.
The Trust’s investment
objective is to reflect the performance of the spot price of SOL as measured
using the Lukka Prime Solana Reference Rate (the “Benchmark”), as adjusted to
reflect the SOL staking rewards earned by the Trust and the Trust’s expenses and
other liabilities. The Trust expects to outperform the Benchmark before taking
its expenses and liabilities into account due to its plans to receive SOL
staking rewards. The Trust is passively-managed and the Sponsor does not
actively manage the SOL held by the Trust. This means that the Sponsor does not
sell SOL at times when its price is high or acquire SOL at low prices in the
expectation of future price increases. It also means that the Sponsor does not
make use of any of the hedging techniques available to professional SOL
investors to attempt to reduce the risks of losses resulting from price changes.
The Trust will not utilize leverage, derivatives or any similar arrangements in
seeking to meet its investment objective; however, the Trust may utilize a short
term credit facility or an alternative liquidity arrangement for the purposes of
obtaining funds necessary to meet requested redemptions from the Trust as
further described herein. The Trust is not a registered investment company under
the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “1940 Act”) and is not required to
register under the 1940 Act. The Sponsor is not registered with the SEC as an
investment adviser and is not subject to regulation by the SEC as such in
connection with its activities with respect to the Trust. The Trust is not a
commodity pool for purposes of the Commodity Exchange Act (the “CEA”), and the
Sponsor is not subject to regulation by the CFTC as a commodity pool operator or
a commodity trading advisor in connection with its activities with respect to
the Trust.
The Trust intends to
continuously offer Shares but may suspend the issuance of Shares at any
time.
In seeking to achieve its
investment objective, the Trust will hold SOL and will seek to stake
substantially all of its SOL to earn staking rewards to the extent the Trust, in
the Sponsor’s sole discretion, can engage in staking without undue legal or
regulatory risk, including jeopardizing its status as a grantor trust for U.S.
federal income tax purposes (the “Staking Condition”). The Sponsor has
determined that the Staking Condition has been satisfied. As of the date of this
Prospectus, the Sponsor intends to engage in staking on behalf of the
Trust of substantially all of the Trust's SOL, subject to an amount that it
determines to invest in the Liquidity Sleeve. The Trust will value its Shares
each day when the Exchange is open for regular trading (a “Business Day”) as of
4:00 p.m. ET. The value of SOL held by the Trust is determined based on the
estimated fair market
value (“FMV”) price for SOL, reflecting the execution price of SOL on its
principal market as determined each day by Lukka Inc., an independent
third-party digital asset data company (the “Benchmark Provider”). In this
regard, the Benchmark Provider seeks to identify a “principal market” for SOL
each day, by evaluating eligible SOL trading platforms across a variety of
different criteria, including the trading platforms’ oversight and governance
frameworks, microstructure efficiency, trading volume, data transparency and
data integrity. CSC Delaware Trust Company (the “Trustee”) is the trustee of the
Trust, The Bank of New York Mellon is the Trust’s transfer agent (“Transfer
Agent”) and will hold all of the Trust’s cash on the Trust’s behalf as cash
custodian (“Cash Custodian”), and Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC (the
“Solana Custodian”) will hold all of the Trust’s SOL on the Trust’s behalf as
custodian.
The Trust will process all
creations and redemptions of Shares in transactions with financial firms that
are authorized to do so (known as “Authorized Participants”). When the Trust
creates or redeems its Shares, it will do so in cash or in-kind. When the
Trust issues or redeems its Shares, it will do so only in blocks of 5,000 Shares
(a “Creation Basket”) based on the quantity of SOL attributable to each Share of
the Trust (net of accrued but unpaid Sponsor fees and any accrued but unpaid
expenses or liabilities). Creation and redemption transactions will be conducted
in exchange for SOL in-kind or cash. See “Creation and Redemption of
Shares.”
The Trust expects to
purchase and sell SOL in connection with cash creation or redemption
transactions, and will sell SOL to pay certain expenses, including the Sponsor
Fee and to liquidate staking rewards for cash to pay quarterly distributions to
Shareholders. In this capacity, the Sponsor has entered into an agreement with
Execution Agent to facilitate the purchase or sale of SOL by the Trust.
The quantity of SOL
required to create each Creation Basket (“Creation Basket Deposit”) changes from
day to day. On each day that the Exchange is open for regular trading, the
Sponsor will publish the Creation Basket after market close, which is composed
of an amount of SOL or an amount of cash and/or SOL required to purchase a
Creation Basket the following day. After the Trust’s NAV is struck on a Business
Day, The Bank of New York Mellon (the “Administrator”) adjusts the quantity of
SOL constituting the Creation Basket Deposit for the next Business Day as
appropriate to reflect accrued expenses. The computation is made by the
Administrator as promptly as practicable after 4:00 p.m. ET. The Administrator
calculates the Creation Basket Deposit for a given day by multiplying the NAV by
the number of Shares in a Creation Basket (5,000) divided by the price of SOL at
4:00 p.m. ET as determined consistent with the Benchmark to determine the cash
amount required for a Creation Basket. Fractions of a SOL smaller than
0.00000001 are disregarded for purposes of the computation of the Creation
Basket Deposit. Although the Administrator applies the SOL price to the
calculation of the Creation Basket value, the Administrator plays no role in the
determination of the SOL price used by the Trust; rather the SOL price used in
calculating the cash value of a Creation Basket is identical to the SOL price
used in determining the Trust’s NAV.
For cash creation
transactions, to the extent there is a difference between the price actually
paid by the Trust to acquire a Creation Basket worth of SOL in the cash creation
process compared to the cash value of the Creation Basket (i.e., if there is a
difference between the amount paid by the Execution Agent on behalf of the Trust
to purchase the requisite amount of SOL and the valuation of SOL as part of the
Trust’s NAV calculation), that difference will also be charged to the creating
Authorized Participant in the form of a variable fee.
To support the ability of
Authorized Participants to provide liquidity at prices that reflect the value of
the Trust’s assets and to facilitate orderly transactions in the Shares, the
Trust will ordinarily process redemptions of Creation Baskets within two
business days following receipt of a redemption request by an Authorized
Participant.
Creation Baskets are
expected to be created when there is sufficient demand for Shares, including
when the market price per Share is at a premium to the net asset value per Share
(“NAV”). Authorized Participants are expected to sell such Shares to the public
at prices that reflect, among other factors, the value of the Trust’s assets,
supply of and demand for Shares and market conditions at the time of a
transaction. Similarly, Creation Baskets are expected to be redeemed when the
market price per Share is at a discount to the NAV. Investors (other than
Authorized Participants) seeking to purchase or sell Shares on any day are
expected to transact in the secondary market, on the Exchange or other national
securities exchanges, at the market price per Share, rather than through the
creation or redemption of Creation Baskets. Shares initially comprising the same
Creation Basket but offered by the Authorized Participants to the public at
different times may have different offering prices, which depend on various
factors, including the supply and demand for Shares, the value of the Trust’s
assets, and market conditions at the time of a transaction.
The Sponsor believes that
the design of the Trust will enable investors to effectively and efficiently
implement strategic and tactical asset allocation strategies that use SOL by
investing in the Shares rather than directly in SOL.
The
Trust’s Expenses
The Trust will pay the
Sponsor a unified fee of 0.25% per annum (the “Sponsor Fee”) as compensation for
services performed under the Trust Agreement (as defined herein). The Trust’s
only ordinary recurring expense is the Sponsor Fee.
The Sponsor Fee will be
accrued daily and paid monthly in arrears in U.S. dollars, and will be
calculated by the Administrator. The Sponsor may, at its sole discretion and
from time to time, waive all or a portion of the Sponsor’s Fee for stated
periods of time. The Sponsor is under no obligation to waive any portion of its
fees and any such waiver shall create no obligation to waive any such fees
during any period not covered by the waiver. The Administrator will calculate
the Sponsor Fee on a daily basis by applying the 0.25% annualized rate to the
Trust’s total net assets. To cover the Sponsor Fee, and extraordinary expenses
not assumed by the Sponsor, the Sponsor or its delegate will cause the Trust (or
its delegate) to instruct the Execution Agent to convert SOL held by the Trust
into U.S. dollars. At the direction of the Trust, the Execution Agent will seek
to sell SOL at approximately the price at which it is valued by the Trust and in
the smallest amounts required to permit such payments as they become due, with
the intention of minimizing the Trust’s holdings of assets other than SOL. Accordingly, the amount of SOL to be sold
may vary from time to time depending on the level of the Trust’s expenses and
liabilities and the market price of SOL. The NAV of the Trust and the number of
SOL represented by a Share will decline each time the Trust accrues the Sponsor
Fee or any Trust expenses not assumed by the Sponsor. The Trust is not
responsible for paying any costs associated with the transfer of SOL to or from
the Trust in connection with paying the Sponsor Fee or in connection with
creation and redemption transactions, except for potential borrowing costs under
a short-term credit facility or alternative liquidity arrangement.
Except as noted below, the
Sponsor has agreed to pay all of the Trust’s ordinary expenses out of the
Sponsor’s unified fee, including, but not limited to, the Trustee’s fees, the
fees of The Bank of New York Mellon (for its services as the “Administrator,”
“Transfer Agent,” and “Cash Custodian”), the fees of the Solana Custodian, the
fees of the Execution Agent, Exchange listing fees, Securities and Exchange
Commission (“SEC”) registration fees, printing and mailing costs, legal costs
and audit fees. The Sponsor’s payment of such Trust expenses is not subject to a
cap. The Sponsor also paid the costs of the Trust’s organization.
The Trust will receive a
portion of the staking rewards earned through its staking program in the form of
SOL. The Staking Provider and Sponsor are entitled to receive a fee for their
respective roles in facilitating the Trust's staking program (collectively,
"Staking Expenses"). The Trust will pay the Staking Expenses at a rate of 3% of
the gross staking rewards received by the Trust. The staking rewards earned by
the Trust
will accrue to the Trust’s
account with the Solana Custodian and will generally be staked in the same way
as the Trust’s already staked SOL. The expenses of staking the Trust’s SOL will
be paid from the proceeds of the Trust's staking program and the Trust will
retain the remaining amount of the staking rewards. The Sponsor, on behalf of
the Trust, intends to liquidate staking rewards for cash to be distributed to
Shareholders quarterly.
The Trust may incur
certain extraordinary expenses that are not assumed by the Sponsor. These
include, but are not limited to, taxes and governmental charges, any applicable
brokerage commissions, financing fees, borrowing costs under a short term credit
facility or alternative liquidity arrangement, Solana network fees and similar
transaction fees, expenses and costs of any extraordinary services performed by
the Sponsor (or any other service provider) on behalf of the Trust to protect
the Trust or the interests of Shareholders (including, for example, in
connection with any fork of the Solana blockchain), any indemnification of the
Sponsor, Cash Custodian, Solana Custodian, Staking Provider, Administrator or
other agents, service providers or counterparties of the Trust and extraordinary
legal fees and expenses, including any legal fees and expenses incurred in
connection with litigation, regulatory enforcement or investigation matters.
The
Trust’s Legal Structure
The Trust is a Delaware
statutory trust, formed on June 12, 2025, pursuant to the Delaware Statutory
Trust Act (“DSTA”). The Trust continuously issues common shares representing
fractional undivided beneficial interest in and ownership of the Trust that may
be purchased and sold on the Exchange. The Trust operates pursuant to its
Amended and Restated Declaration of Trust and Trust Agreement, dated as of
November 28, 2025 (the “Trust Agreement”). CSC Delaware Trust Company, a
Delaware trust company, is the Delaware trustee of the Trust (the “Trustee”).
Shareholders will have very limited voting rights, which will limit their
ability to influence matters such as amendment of the Trust Agreement, change in
the Trust’s basic investment policy, dissolution of the Trust, or the sale or
distribution of the Trust’s assets.
The
Lukka Prime Solana Reference Rate
The Benchmark is designed
to provide an estimated fair market value (“FMV”) for SOL, in a manner that
aligns with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“U.S.
GAAP”) and International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (“IFRS”)
accounting guidelines regarding fair market value measurements. In this regard,
the Benchmark Provider seeks to identify a “principal market” for SOL each day,
by evaluating eligible SOL trading platforms across a variety of different
criteria, including the trading platforms’ oversight and governance frameworks,
microstructure efficiency, trading volume, data transparency and data integrity.
As of September 30, 2025, the following trading platforms are considered to be
eligible trading platforms by the Benchmark Provider: Binance, Bitfinex,
Bitflyer, Bitstamp, Bullish, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Gate.io, Gemini, HitBTC,
Huobi, itBit, Kraken, KuCoin, LMAX, MEXC Global, OKX and Poloniex (collectively,
“Benchmark Pricing Sources”). The Benchmark Provider reviews trading platforms
eligible for inclusion in the Benchmark quarterly. In determining which trading
platforms to include as Benchmark Pricing Sources, the Benchmark Provider
evaluates each trading platform using proprietary ratings criteria. The
Benchmark Provider periodically reassesses the trading platforms eligible to be
considered Benchmark Pricing Sources, and makes adjustments as needed.
For purposes of financial
reporting, the Trust will determine the principal market for SOL in accordance
with ASC Topic 820-10, and such determination is considered from the Trust’s
perspective. Procedures will be implemented to review and confirm the prices
utilized to value SOL reflect fair value in accordance with Accounting Standards
Codification Topic 820, “Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures” (“ASC Topic
820”) and will be reviewed by the Sponsor’s Valuation Committee on a periodic
basis.
With respect to the
Trust’s Authorized Participants, the Trust has no authority over which trading
platforms the Authorized Participants or their affiliates might transact on,
although the Trust expects that most
Authorized Participants or
their affiliates may transact on several of the trading platforms used by the
Benchmark Provider. The Trust notes that for transactions in which it is selling
SOL, it may do so in principal-to-principal transactions, although the Trust is
eligible to execute trades on all of the trading platforms used by the Benchmark
Provider. While the principal to principal market is the market in which the
Execution Agent, on the Trust’s behalf, would normally transact for sales of
SOL, in considering all information reasonably available in accordance with the
guidance in ASC 820-10-35-5A, the Trust notes that the identification of a
principal market is completed by the Benchmark Provider based on a variety of
different criteria including but not limited to trading platforms’ oversight and
governance frameworks, microstructure efficiency, trading volume, data
transparency and data integrity. The Trust views this evidence to the contrary
as an appropriate basis to determine a primary market that is not the
principal-to-principal market, in accordance with the guidance in ASC
820-10-35-5A.
The
Trust’s Staking Program
In seeking to achieve its
investment objective, the Trust will hold SOL and will seek to stake
substantially all of its SOL to earn staking rewards, except as necessary to (i)
pay the Sponsor Fee or other Trust expenses, (ii) satisfy existing and
reasonably foreseen potential redemption requests, (iii) address regulatory or
tax concerns raised by staking activities or (iv) to maintain unstaked SOL in
the Liquidity Sleeve. The Trust will only engage in staking to the extent the
Trust, in the Sponsor’s sole discretion, can engage in staking without undue
legal or regulatory risk, including without jeopardizing its status as a grantor
trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes (the “Staking Condition”). The Sponsor has determined that the
Staking Condition has been satisfied. As of the date of this Prospectus, the
Sponsor intends to engage in staking on behalf of the Trust of substantially all
of the Trust's SOL, subject to an amount that it determines to invest in the
Liquidity Sleeve. Galaxy Blockchain Infrastructure LLC, an affiliate of the
Execution Agent, is expected to serve as a Staking Provider with respect to the
Trust’s SOL.
If the Trust engaging in staking
activities raised concerns about the safety or liquidity of the Trust's SOL, the
Trust may cease some or all of its staking activities. Staking on the
Solana network involves delegating of SOL to validators and carries risks
discussed further below. Staked SOL may be subject to community-determined
penalties for validator misbehavior, or slashing. If the Staking Provider causes
the Trust’s staked SOL to be subject to such slashing losses, the Trust could
suffer losses of the staked SOL. Additionally, the staking process includes
protocol-defined warm-up, activation and withdrawal periods, during which staked
SOL is temporarily locked and inaccessible. These phases affect when SOL begins
earning rewards, participates in consensus and becomes available for transfer or
redelegation.
The Staking Provider will stake the Trust’s SOL
as the node operator and will operate a validator to stake the Trust’s SOL. The
Staking Provider will perform its staking services in collaboration with the
Solana Custodian, as the SOL will be staked directly from the Trust’s SOL
account with the Solana Custodian. The Trust will maintain control of the SOL
while it is staked because it will remain in the Trust’s account with the Solana
Custodian (i.e., it will be kept in a
separate account for which the Trust is the beneficial and record owner and will
not be commingled other parties' accounts with the Solana Custodian). The Trust
will maintain the power to unstake its SOL. The Staking Provider will not have
this capability. Staking will be a passive activity for the Trust, as it will
not operate its staking program. The Trust’s role will be limited to evaluating
and contracting with one or more Staking Providers and instructing the Staking
Provider on when to stake and/or unstake the Trust’s SOL.
The Trust will receive a portion of the staking
rewards earned through its staking program in the form of SOL. The Staking
Provider and Sponsor are entitled to receive a fee for their respective roles in
facilitating the Trust's staking program (collectively, "Staking Expenses"). The
Trust will pay Staking Expenses at a rate of 3% of the gross staking rewards
received by the Trust. The expenses of staking the Trust’s SOL will be paid from
the proceeds of the Trust's staking program and the Trust will retain the
remaining amount of the staking rewards. The staking rewards earned by the Trust
will accrue to the Trust’s account with the Solana Custodian and will generally
be staked in the same way as
the Trust’s already staked SOL. The Sponsor, on
behalf of the Trust, intends to liquidate staking rewards for cash to be
distributed to Shareholders quarterly.
Liquidity
Risk Management
The Trust’s staking program involves the
temporary loss of the ability to transfer or otherwise dispose of the Trust’s
SOL. The Sponsor has adopted a liquidity risk management policy (the “Policy”)
related to the management of the Trust’s staking-related liquidity risks. The
Policy is intended to comply with, and is in line with, the listing rules of the
Exchange. Below is a summary of certain aspects of the Policy, which is
available at the Trust’s website. The Sponsor expects that under normal
conditions, the Trust will generally regain complete control over the Trust’s
SOL in up to three days of instructing the Solana Custodian to unstake or "exit"
the Trust’s staked SOL positions. However, there can be no guarantee that such
process will result in the Trust regaining complete control of its SOL in time
to satisfy its current obligations. Accordingly, the Sponsor may consider a
number of options to manage the liquidity of the Trust’s assets in times of
stress, including a temporary extension of the settlement timeline for
redemption orders or a temporary suspension of redemption orders. The Sponsor
may also rely on other means of managing liquidity such as the use of a credit
facility or an alternative liquidity arrangement (including a credit facility
with the Sponsor or its affiliates acting as lender) in its sole discretion. The
costs of such a borrowing arrangement would be borne by the Trust.
The Trust may reduce the amount of its SOL that
is staked as part of managing its liquidity, extend the settlement time for
redemptions of Creation Baskets, or seek alternative sources of liquidity, such
as a credit facility. As of the date of this Prospectus, the Sponsor
intends to engage in staking on behalf of the Trust of substantially all of the
Trust's SOL, subject to an amount that it determines to maintain as unstaked SOL
to manage liquidity. As of the date of the Prospectus, the Trust has not entered
into a credit facility or an alternative liquidity arrangement. If the Trust
enters into a credit facility or an
alternative liquidity arrangement, the Trust will notify shareholders through
the filing of a Form 8-K and a supplement to this Prospectus describing the
material terms of any such arrangement. Key staking metrics related to the
amount of SOL that is staked and staking rewards received by the Trust will be
published and updated on the Trust’s website.
The Trust will not utilize leverage,
derivatives or similar instruments or transactions in seeking to meet its
investment objective; however, the Trust may utilize a short term credit
facility or an alternative liquidity arrangement for the purposes of obtaining
funds necessary to meet redemptions from the Trust. The Policy is designed to
manage staking-related liquidity risks, but these risks cannot be fully
eliminated, especially in extreme or stressed market conditions or in the event
that the Trust or its service providers experience operational disruptions.
Accordingly, investors could still experience delays or limitations on
redemptions if the Trust is unable to unstake the necessary amount of SOL in
time to satisfy its current obligations.
The
Trust’s Service Providers
The
Sponsor
Invesco Capital Management
LLC is the Sponsor of the Trust. The Sponsor arranged for the creation of the
Trust and is responsible for the ongoing registration of the Shares for their
public offering, the listing of Shares on the Exchange and valuing the SOL held
by the Trust. The Sponsor is a limited liability company formed in the State of
Delaware on February 7, 2003, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Invesco Ltd.
Invesco Ltd. and its subsidiaries, including the Sponsor, are an independent
global investment management group. The Sponsor’s principal address is 3500
Lacey Road, Suite 700, Downers Grove, IL 60515.
The
Trustee
CSC Delaware Trust
Company, a Delaware trust company, acts as the Trustee of the Trust as required
to create a Delaware statutory trust in accordance with the Trust Agreement and
the DSTA. The Trustee’s principal address is 251 Little Falls Drive, Wilmington,
DE 19808 Attention: Invesco Galaxy Solana ETF.
The
Administrator
The Bank of New York
Mellon (“BNYM”) serves as the Trust’s Administrator. Under the trust
administration and accounting agreement, the Administrator provides necessary
administrative, tax and accounting services and financial reporting for the
maintenance and operations of the Trust, including calculating the NAV of the
Trust, determining the net assets of the Trust, and calculating the size of the
Creation Baskets. The Administrator’s principal address is 240 Greenwich Street,
New York, New York 10286.
The
Transfer Agent
BNYM also serves as the
Transfer Agent for the Trust. The Transfer Agent is responsible for (1) issuing
and redeeming Shares in connection with creation and redemption transactions,
(2) responding to correspondence by Shareholders and others relating to its
duties, (3) maintaining Shareholder accounts and (4) making periodic reports to
the Trust. The Transfer Agent’s principal address is 240 Greenwich Street, New
York, New York 10286.
The
Solana Custodian
Coinbase Custody Trust
Company, LLC serves as the Trust’s Solana Custodian. The Trust has entered into
a prime brokerage and custody agreement with the Solana Custodian (the “Solana
Custody Agreement”), pursuant to which the Solana Custodian will hold in custody
all of the Trust’s SOL, other than that which may be maintained in a trading
account with Coinbase, Inc. from time to time. See “Prospectus Summary—Custody
of the Trust’s Assets,” below. The Solana Custodian is chartered as a limited
purpose trust company by the New York State Department of Financial Services
(“NYSDFS”) and is authorized by the NYSDFS to provide digital asset custody
services. The Solana Custodian is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coinbase Global,
Inc.
The Solana Custodian is a
third-party limited purpose trust company that was chartered in 2018 upon
receiving a trust charter from the NYSDFS. The Solana Custodian is subject to
regulation by the NYSDFS and has a long track record of providing custodial
services for digital asset private keys. The Sponsor believes that the Solana
Custodian’s policies, procedures, and controls for safekeeping, exclusively
possessing, and controlling the Trust’s SOL holdings are consistent with
industry best practices to protect against theft, loss, and unauthorized and
accidental use of the private keys. Each Trust Solana account at the Solana
Custodian and the Sponsor’s Solana account, if any, at the Solana Custodian are
segregated accounts and are therefore not commingled with the Solana Custodian’s
corporate or other customer assets.
Although the Solana
Custodian carries insurance for the benefit of its account holders, the Solana
Custodian’s insurance does not cover any loss in value to SOL and only covers
losses caused by certain events such as fraud or theft and, in such covered
events, it is unlikely the insurance would cover the full amount of any losses
incurred by the Trust.
The
Cash Custodian
BNYM also serves as the
cash custodian for the Trust (the “Cash Custodian”) pursuant to a custody
agreement (the “Cash Custody Agreement”). The Cash Custodian is responsible for
holding the Trust’s cash, including in connection with creation and redemption
transactions effected in cash. The Cash Custodian is a New York state-chartered
bank and a member of the Federal Reserve System. The Cash Custodian’s principal
address is 240 Greenwich Street, New York, New York 10286.
The
Staking Provider
Galaxy Blockchain
Infrastructure LLC, an affiliate of the Execution Agent is expected to serve as
a Staking Provider with respect to the Trust’s SOL. The Staking Provider will
stake the Trust’s SOL as the node operator and will operate a validator by which
the Trust’s SOL is staked. The Staking Provider will perform its staking
services in collaboration with the Solana Custodian, as the SOL will be staked
directly from the Trust’s account with the Solana Custodian.
The
Execution Agent
The Sponsor has entered
into an agreement with Galaxy Digital Funds LLC, a subsidiary of Galaxy Digital
LP (“Galaxy” or the “Execution Agent”) to serve as Execution Agent. At the
direction of the Sponsor, the Execution Agent is responsible for selling SOL on
behalf of the Trust to the extent necessary to permit the payment of the Trust’s
expenses and to liquidate staking rewards for cash to pay quarterly
distributions to Shareholders. The Trust also will utilize the services of the
Execution Agent to purchase or sell SOL in connection with cash creations and
redemptions. When acquiring or disposing of SOL on behalf of the Trust in
connection with a creation or redemption transaction, the Sponsor will provide
instructions to the Execution Agent, who will identify a Solana Counterparty.
The Solana Counterparty will not have a pre-existing material relationship with
the Trust, except that in some cases the Solana Counterparty may be an affiliate
of a service provider to the Trust. In connection with both cash creation and
cash redemption transactions, the Execution Agent, pursuant to the oversight of
the Sponsor, will decide how and with which Solana Counterparty to transact on
the Trust’s behalf. In addition, as part of this agreement, the Execution Agent
has agreed to co-brand and co-market the Trust and the Sponsor has licensed the
use of certain Execution Agent trademarks, service marks and trade names in
connection with the Trust. The Execution Agent’s principal address is 300 Vesey
Street, New York City, New York 10282.
Galaxy is a subsidiary of
Galaxy Digital Holdings LP (“Galaxy Holdings”). Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd.,
which holds a limited partner interest in Galaxy Holdings, is listed on the
Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “GLXY.”
Authorized
Participants
The Trust will process all
creations and redemptions of Shares in transactions with Authorized
Participants. Creation and redemption transactions will be conducted in
exchange for SOL in-kind or cash.
When purchasing Creation
Baskets in-kind with SOL, Authorized Participants and/or their
designees will deliver SOL to the Solana Custodian. After confirming receipt of
the SOL by the Solana Custodian, the Transfer Agent is authorized by the Sponsor
to issue Creation Baskets of Shares to the creating Authorized Participant in
satisfaction of the creation order.
When purchasing Creation
Baskets for cash, Authorized Participants will deliver cash to the Cash
Custodian. The Execution Agent will be responsible for acquiring the requisite
amount of SOL on behalf of the Trust on an agency basis on the value date of the
order. Once the Execution Agent selects a Solana
Counterparty, the Cash
Custodian will transfer cash to the Solana Counterparty in payment for the
requisite amount of SOL. The SOL acquired from the Solana Counterparty will be
transferred to the Solana Custodian. After receipt of the SOL by the Solana
Custodian, the Transfer Agent will issue Creation Baskets of Shares to the
creating Authorized Participant in satisfaction of the creation order.
When redeeming Creation
Baskets in-kind for SOL, the Transfer Agent will redeem the Shares and
the Solana Custodian will distribute the resulting SOL to the redeeming
Authorized Participant and/or its designee in satisfaction of the redemption
order.
When redeeming Creation
Baskets for cash, the Execution Agent will be responsible for selling the
requisite amount of SOL on behalf of the Trust on an agency basis. Once the
Execution Agent selects a Solana Counterparty, the Solana Custodian will
transfer SOL to the Solana Counterparty in return for the requisite cash
payment. The cash received from the Solana Counterparty will be delivered to the
Cash Custodian. After receipt of the cash payment, the Transfer Agent will
redeem the Shares and the Cash Custodian will distribute the resulting cash to
the redeeming Authorized Participant in satisfaction of the redemption
order.
In connection with both
cash creation and cash redemption transactions, the Execution Agent, pursuant to
the oversight of the Sponsor, will decide how and with which Solana Counterparty
to transact on the Trust’s behalf.
Authorized Participants
are expected to sell Shares to the public at prices that reflect, among other
factors, the value of the Trust’s assets, supply of and demand for Shares and
market conditions at the time of a transaction.
As of the date of the
Prospectus, the Trust has entered into Authorized Participant Agreements with
Jane Street Capital, LLC and Virtu Americas LLC.
The
Marketing Agent
Invesco Distributors, Inc.
(the “Marketing Agent”) is responsible for: (1) working with the Transfer Agent
to review and approve, or reject, purchase and redemption orders of Shares
placed by Authorized Participants with the Transfer Agent; and (2) reviewing and
approving the marketing materials prepared by the Trust for compliance with
applicable SEC and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) advertising
laws, rules, and regulations. The Marketing Agent’s principal address is 11
Greenway Plaza, Suite 1000, Houston, TX 77046.
Custody
of the Trust’s Assets
The Solana Custodian will
keep the private keys associated with the Trust’s SOL in a “cold storage”
environment where the private keys are generated and secured (the “Prime Custody
Vault”). The Trust intends to conduct its regular SOL transactions, including in
connection with creation and redemption
transactions and selling
SOL to pay the Trust’s expenses, directly from the Trust’s Prime Custody Vault
in over-the-counter transactions directly with counterparties selected by the
Execution Agent. While the Trust does not expect to utilize the services of the
Coinbase, Inc. (“Coinbase” or the “Prime Broker”), in connection with
transactions where the Trust’s SOL is being processed in connection with certain
creation or redemption transactions or it is being sold to pay Trust expenses,
the Execution Agent may elect to transact through the Prime Broker. In such
circumstances, the Trust’s SOL may be maintained in a trading account (the
“Trading Balance”) with the Prime Broker, an affiliate of the Solana Custodian.
The Trust’s SOL will be maintained by the Solana Custodian and Coinbase in
accounts that are required to be segregated from the assets held by the Solana
Custodian or Coinbase as principal and, when held in the Prime Custody Vault,
the assets of their other customers. “Cold storage” refers to a safeguarding
method by which the private keys corresponding to the Trust’s SOL are generated
and stored in an offline manner using computers or devices that are not directly
connected to the internet, which is intended to make them more resistant to
hacking, or similarly secure technology. All of the Trust’s SOL will be held in
the Prime Custody Vault, except that it may be maintained in the Trading Balance
in connection with certain creation or redemption transactions or when it is
being sold to pay the Sponsor Fee or Trust expenses not assumed by the Sponsor.
The Sponsor seeks to stake substantially all of the Trust’s assets through one
or more trusted Staking Providers, except as necessary to (i) pay the Sponsor
Fee or other Trust expenses, (ii) satisfy existing and reasonably foreseen
potential redemption requests, (iii) address regulatory or tax concerns raised
by staking activities or (iv) to maintain unstaked SOL in the Liquidity Sleeve.
In consideration for any staking activity in which the Trust may engage, the
Trust would receive certain staking rewards of SOL tokens, which may be treated
as income for U.S. federal income tax purposes. The Sponsor, on behalf of the
Trust, intends to liquidate certain staking rewards for cash to be distributed
to Shareholders quarterly. The treatment of staking in a grantor trust for U.S.
federal income tax purposes is still developing. As a grantor trust, the
Trust can undertake only certain types of activities. Please see "Taxation
of the Trust" below for more details. The Trust will not acquire and will
disclaim any Incidental Right or Incidental Right asset received, for example as
a result of “forks” or “airdrops,” and such assets will not be taken into
account for purposes of determining NAV.
The SOL in the Trust’s
account at the Solana Custodian may be held across multiple wallets, any of
which will feature the following safety and security measures to be implemented
by the Solana Custodian:
Cold Storage: Cold storage in the context of
SOL means keeping the reserve of SOL offline, which is a widely-used security
precaution, especially when dealing with a large amount of SOL. SOL held under
custodianship with the Solana Custodian will be kept in high-security, offline,
multi-layer cold storage vaults. This means that the private key materials, the
cryptographic components that allow a user to access SOL, are stored offline on
hardware that has never been directly connected to the internet. Storing private
key materials offline minimizes the risk of the SOL being stolen. The Sponsor
expects that all of the Trust’s SOL will be held in cold storage of the Solana
Custodian in the Prime Custody Vault on an ongoing basis, except as noted above.
In connection with certain creations or redemptions, the Trust may process
creations and redemptions by selling SOL from its Prime Custody Vault
balance.
Private Keys: All private keys are securely
protected using multiple layers of high-quality encryption and in Solana
Custodian-owned offline hardware in physically secure environments. No customers
or third parties are given access to the Solana Custodian’s private keys.
Whitelisting: Transactions are only sent to
vetted, known addresses. The Solana Custodian’s platform supports pre-approval
and test transactions. The Solana Custodian requires authentication when adding
or removing addresses for whitelisting. All instructions to initiate a whitelist
addition or removal must be submitted via the Solana Custodian’s platform. When
a whitelist addition or removal request is initiated, the initiating user will
be prompted to authenticate their request using a two-factor authentication key.
A consensus mechanism on the Solana Custodian’s platform dictates how many
approvals are required in order for the consensus to be achieved to add or
remove a whitelisted address. Only when the consensus is
met is the underlying
transaction considered officially approved. An account’s roster and user roles
are maintained by the Solana Custodian in a separate log, an Authorized User
List (“AUL”). Any changes to the account’s roster must be reflected on an
updated AUL first and executed by an authorized signatory.
Audit Trails: Audit trails exist for all
movement of SOL within Solana Custodian-controlled SOL wallets and are audited
annually for accuracy and completeness by an independent external audit
firm.
In addition to the above
measures, in accordance with the Solana Custody Agreement, SOL held in custody
with the Solana Custodian will be segregated from both the proprietary property
of the Solana Custodian and the assets of any other customer in accounts that
clearly identify the Trust as the owner of the accounts.
The Solana Custodian has
insurance coverage as a subsidiary under its parent company, Coinbase Global,
Inc., which procures fidelity (e.g., crime) insurance to protect the
organization from risks such as theft of funds. Specifically, the fidelity
program provides coverage for the theft of funds held in hot or cold storage.
The insurance program is provided by a syndicate of industry-leading insurers.
The insurance program does not cover, insure or guarantee the performance of the
Trust. The Solana Custodian is not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (“FDIC”).
The Trust relies on the
Cash Custodian to hold or transfer any cash related to the purchase or sale of
SOL in connection with cash creation and redemption transactions, or held for
payment of expenses not assumed by the Sponsor, such as the Sponsor Fee. In its
role, the Cash Custodian helps facilitate the creations and redemptions of
Shares done in exchange for cash.
Net
Asset Value
NAV means the value of the
total assets of the Trust including, but not limited to, all SOL and cash (if
any) less the total liabilities of the Trust (including accrued but unpaid
expenses), divided by the number of outstanding Shares.
The Administrator
determines the NAV of the Trust on each day that the Exchange is open for
regular trading. In determining the Trust’s NAV, the Administrator values the
SOL held by the Trust based on the price established by the Benchmark Provider
as of 4:00 p.m. ET each Business Day.
The amount of SOL
represented by the Shares will be reduced during the life of the Trust each time
the Trust accrues the Sponsor Fee or pays for any extraordinary expenses. This
dynamic will occur irrespective of whether the value of the Trust’s assets, or
the trading price of the Shares, rises or falls. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related
to the Trust and the Shares—The amount of SOL represented by the Shares will
decline over time” and “Calculation of NAV.”
Plan of
Distribution
Most investors buy and
sell Shares of the Trust in secondary market transactions through brokers.
Shares trade on the Exchange under the ticker symbol “QSOL.” Shares are bought
and sold throughout the trading day like other publicly traded securities. When
buying or selling Shares through a broker, most investors incur customary
brokerage commissions and charges, as well as any bid-ask spread.
Shareholders are encouraged to review the terms of their brokerage account for
details on applicable charges.
Authorized Participants
are expected to sell such Shares to the public at prices that reflect, among
other factors, the value of the Trust’s assets, supply of and demand for Shares
and market conditions at the time of a transaction. The Trust will continuously
offer Creation Baskets consisting of 5,000 Shares to Authorized Participants.
Authorized Participants may pay (i) a transaction fee and (ii) transfer,
processing
and other transaction
costs charged by the Solana Custodian (the “Custody Transaction Fee”) for each
order they place to create or redeem Creation Baskets.
Prior to this offering,
there has been no public market for the Shares. The Shares are expected to be
listed for trading, subject to notice of issuance, on the Exchange under the
ticker symbol QSOL.
Federal
Income Tax Considerations
It is expected that owners
of Shares will be treated, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, as if they own
a proportionate share of the assets of the Trust, as if they directly receive a
proportionate share of any income of the Trust, and as if they incur a
proportionate share of the expenses of the Trust. Consequently, each sale of SOL
by the Trust (which includes, under current Internal Revenue Service guidance,
using SOL to pay expenses of the Trust, including the Sponsor Fee) would give
rise to taxable gain or loss to Shareholders. See “U.S. Federal Income Tax
Consequences—Taxation of U.S. Shareholders.”
Use of
Proceeds
Proceeds received by the
Trust from the issuance of Creation Baskets consist of in-kind SOL and cash
deposits. SOL deposits are held by the Solana Custodian on behalf of the
Trust until (i) delivered to Authorized Participants or their designated agent
or client in connection with an in-kind redemption or sold in connection with a
cash redemption or (ii) sold to pay the Sponsor’s Fee and Trust expenses of
liabilities not assumed by the Sponsor. Cash deposits are held by the Cash
Custodian on behalf of the Trust until (i) transferred in connection with the
purchase of SOL, (ii) delivered to Authorized Participants in connection with a
redemption of Creation Baskets; or (iii) transferred to pay the Sponsor Fee or
for extraordinary expenses and liabilities not assumed by the Sponsor. Proceeds
may also be used in staking activities.
SOL and
the Solana Network
SOL is a digital asset,
also referred to as a digital currency or cryptocurrency, that is created and
transmitted through the operations of the peer-to-peer Solana network (“Solana”
or “Solana network”), which is a network of computers, known as nodes, that
operates as cryptographic computer-code based logic, call a protocol. No single
entity owns or operates the Solana network, the infrastructure of which is
collectively maintained by a distributed user base, a phenomenon known as
decentralization. The Solana network allows people to exchange tokens of value,
called SOL, which are recorded on a public transaction ledger known as the
Solana blockchain. SOL may be used to pay for goods and services, including
computational power on the Solana network, stored for future use, or converted
to a fiat currency, such as the U.S. dollar, at rates determined on digital
asset trading platforms, or in individual end-user-to-end-user transactions
under a barter system.
Furthermore, the Solana
network also allows users to write and implement smart contracts—that is,
general-purpose code that executes on every computer in the network and can
instruct the transmission of information and value based on a sophisticated set
of logical conditions. Using smart contracts, users can create markets, store
registries of debts or promises, represent the ownership of property, move funds
in accordance with conditional instructions and create digital assets other than
SOL on the Solana network. Smart contract operations are executed on the Solana
Blockchain in exchange for payment of SOL. The Solana network is one of a number
of projects intended to expand blockchain use beyond just a peer-to-peer money
system. The value of SOL is not backed by any government, corporation, or other
identified body.
The Solana protocol introduced the
Proof-of-History ("PoH") timestamping mechanism. PoH automatically orders
on-chain transactions by creating a historical record that proves an event has
occurred at a specific
moment in time. PoH is intended to provide a
transaction processing speed and capacity advantage over other blockchain
networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which rely on sequential production of
blocks and can lead to delays caused by validator confirmations. PoH is a new
blockchain technology that is not widely used. PoH may not function as intended.
For example, it may require more specialized equipment to participate in the
network and fail to attract a significant number of users, or may be subject to
outages or fail to function as intended. In addition, there may be flaws in the
cryptography underlying PoH, including flaws that affect functionality of the
Solana network or make the network vulnerable to attack.
In addition to the PoH mechanism described
above, the Solana network uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to
incentivize SOL holders to validate transactions. Unlike proof-of-work, in which
miners expend computational resources to compete to validate transactions and
are rewarded coins in proportion to the amount of computational resources
expended, in proof-of-stake, validators risk or “stake” coins to compete to be
randomly selected to validate transactions and are rewarded coins in proportion
to the amount of coins staked. Any malicious activity, such as disagreeing with
the eventual consensus or otherwise violating protocol rules, results in the
forfeiture or “slashing” of a portion of the staked coins. Proof-of-stake is
viewed as more energy efficient and scalable than proof-of-work and is sometimes
referred to as “virtual mining.”
The Solana protocol was first conceived by
Anatoly Yakovenko in a 2017 whitepaper. Development of the Solana network is
overseen by the Solana Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organization, and Solana
Labs, Inc. (“Solana Labs”), a Delaware corporation, which administered the
original network launch and token distribution. Although Solana Labs and the
Solana Foundation continue to exert significant influence over the direction of
the development of Solana, the Solana network, like the Ethereum network, is
understood to be decentralized and does not require governmental authorities or
financial institution intermediaries to create, transmit or determine the value
of Solana.
In order to own, transfer or use SOL directly
on the Solana network (as opposed to through an intermediary, such as a
custodian), a person generally must have internet access to connect to the
Solana network. SOL transactions may be made directly between end-users without
the need for a third-party intermediary. To prevent the possibility of
double-spending SOL, a user must notify the Solana network of the transaction by
broadcasting the transaction data to its network peers. The Solana network
provides confirmation against double-spending by memorializing every transaction
in the Solana blockchain, which is publicly accessible and transparent. This
memorialization and verification against double-spending is accomplished through
the Solana network validation process, which adds “blocks” of data, including
recent transaction information, to the Solana blockchain. Unlike other
blockchains that rely solely on sequential production of blocks through
proof-of-work or proof-of-stake mechanisms, however, the Solana network
introduces PoH, which creates a historical record that proves an event has
occurred at a specific moment in time.
The Solana software source
code allows for the creation of decentralized applications (“DApps”) that are
supported by a transaction protocol referred to as “smart contracts,” which
includes the cryptographic operations that verify and secure SOL transactions. A
smart contract operates by a predefined set of rules (i.e., “if/then
statements”) that allows it to automatically execute code the same way on any
Solana node on the network. Such actions taken by the predefined set of rules
are not necessarily contractual in nature but are intended to eliminate the
arbitration of a third party for carrying out code execution on behalf of users,
making the system decentralized, while empowering developers to create a wide
range of applications layering together different smart contracts. Smart
contracts can be utilized across several different applications ranging from art
to finance. One of the most popular applications is the use of smart contracts
for underpinning the operability of decentralized financial services (“DeFi”),
which consist of numerous highly interoperable protocols and applications. DeFi
is believed by some to offer many opportunities for innovation and to have the
potential to create an open, transparent, and immutable financial
infrastructure, with democratized access.
The Solana network operates using open-source
protocols, meaning that any user can become a node by downloading a software
application that implements Solana network specification and communications with
the Solana network (“Solana Client”), and participating in the Solana network,
and no permission of a central authority or body is needed to do so. In
addition, anyone can propose a modification to the Solana network’s source code
and then propose that the Solana network community support the modification.
These proposed modifications to the Solana network’s source code, if adopted,
can lead to forks (referred to as “planned forks” because they take place
through a formal process).
A modification of the Solana network’s source
code is only effective with respect to the SOL nodes that download it and modify
their Solana Clients accordingly, and in practice such decisions are heavily
influenced by the preferences of validators and users. Typically, after a
modification introduced and if a sufficiently broad critical mass of users and
validators support the modification and nodes download the modification into
their individual Solana Clients, the change is implemented and the Solana
network continues to operate uninterrupted, assuming there are no software
issues (e.g., bugs, outages, etc.). However, if less than a sufficiently broad
critical mass (in practice, amounting to a substantial majority) of users and
validators support the proposed modification and nodes refuse to download the
modification to their Solana Clients, and the modification is not backwards
compatible with the Solana blockchain or network or the Solana Clients of nodes
prior to their modification, the consequence would be what is known as a “hard
fork” of the Solana network, with one group of nodes running the pre-modified
software, with users and validators continuing to use the pre-modified software,
while the other group would adopt and run the modified software.
In the event of a hard
fork of the Solana network, the Sponsor will instruct the Trust to immediately
and irrevocably disclaim all rights to the SOL, cash or other assets or rights
received as a result of a hard fork or airdrop in respect of SOL (“IR Assets”)
so created. As a result, shareholders will not receive the benefits of any hard
fork or airdrop. SOL is the only digital asset that will be held by the Trust.
In the event the Trust seeks to change its treatment of Incidental Rights or IR
Assets, an application would need to be filed with the SEC by the Exchange
seeking approval to amend its listing rules.
Assets in the Solana
network are held in accounts. Each account, or “wallet,” is made up of at least
two components: a public address and a private key. A SOL private key controls
the transfer or “spending” of SOL from its associated public SOL address. A SOL
“wallet” is a collection of public Solana addresses and their associated private
key(s). This design allows only the owner of SOL to send SOL, the intended
recipient of SOL to unlock it, and the validation of the transaction and
ownership to be verified by any third party anywhere in the world.
SOL may be regarded as a
currency or digital commodity depending on its specific use in particular
transactions. SOL may be used as a medium of exchange or unit of account.
Similarly, SOL may be used as a store of value (i.e., an asset that maintains
its value rather than depreciating), although it has experienced significant
periods of price volatility.
There can be no assurance
as to the future performance of SOL; the past performance and volatility of SOL
should not be taken as an indication of future performance or volatility.
The
Solana Market
SOL spot trading occurs on
venues in the U.S. that are licensed to conduct that business by the NYSDFS,
other venues in the U.S. and non-U.S. venues. In addition, SOL futures trading
occurs on trading platforms in the U.S. regulated by the CFTC. The market for
NYSDFS-licensed and CFTC-regulated trading of SOL and SOL futures has developed
substantially. SOL market conditions in the three months ending on September 30,
2025, are briefly summarized as follows:
|
• |
Solana: There are over 20
NYSDFS-licensed entities operating trading platforms with order books for
spot trading of SOL. Among the top NYSDFS-licensed trading platforms,
year-to-date as-of September 30, 2025, the average daily trading volume is
approximately $293 million. Across these venues, the average daily
deviation of prices was less than 0.08%. The largest NYSDFS-licensed
trading platform by volume had an average bid-ask spread during the period
of less than 0.05%. |
|
• |
Futures: There are currently
over 10 CFTC-regulated trading platforms, 2 of which are open and
facilitate trading of SOL futures, with a total average daily trading
volume of approximately $650 million. |
Principal
Investment Risks of an Investment in the Trust
An investment in the Trust
involves risks. You should consider carefully the risks summarized below, which
are described in more detail under “Risk Factors.”
Shareholders may choose to
use the Trust as means of investing indirectly in SOL. Shareholders considering
a purchase of Shares of the Trust should carefully consider how much of their
total assets should be exposed to the SOL market, and should fully understand,
be willing to assume, and have the financial resources necessary to withstand,
the risks involved in the Trust’s investment strategy, and be in a position to
bear the potential loss of their entire investment in the Trust.
There is no assurance as
to whether the Trust will be profitable or meet its expenses and liabilities.
Any investment made in the Trust may result in a total loss of the
investment.
Risks
Related to Solana
Market and Volatility Risk. The trading prices of many digital
assets, including SOL, have exhibited high price volatility relative to more
traditional asset classes, which may be due to speculation regarding potential
future appreciation in value. The value of the
Trust’s investments in SOL could
decline rapidly, including to zero.
Some market observers have
asserted that the digital asset market, including SOL, periodically experiences
pricing “bubbles” and have predicted that, in time, the value of SOL will fall
to a fraction of its current value, or even to zero. SOL has not been in
existence long enough for market participants to assess these predictions with
any precision, but if these observers are even partially correct, an investment
in the Shares may turn out to be substantially worthless.
Adoption Risk. The further development and
acceptance of the Solana network, which is part of a new and rapidly changing
industry, is subject to a variety of factors that are difficult to evaluate. The
slowing, stopping or reversing of the development or acceptance of the Solana
network may adversely affect the price of SOL and therefore an investment in the
Shares.
Currently, there is
relatively limited use of SOL in the retail and commercial marketplace in
comparison to relatively extensive use as a store of value. Tax treatment of the
use of SOL as a medium of exchange and other factors could hinder expansion of
SOL into retail and commercial markets. A lack of expansion by SOL into retail
and commercial markets, or a contraction of such use, may result in damage to
the public perception of SOL and the utility of SOL as a payment system,
increased volatility or a reduction in the value of SOL, all of which could
adversely impact an investment in the Shares. Furthermore, many other digital
assets besides SOL have been created. To the extent market participants come to
prefer these other digital assets, the value of SOL, and therefore an investment
in the Shares, may be adversely affected.
Regulatory Risk. Regulatory changes or actions
may alter the nature of an investment in SOL or restrict the use of SOL or the
operations of the Solana network or venues on which SOL trades in a manner that
adversely affects the price of SOL and an investment in the Shares. For example,
it may become difficult or illegal to acquire, hold, sell or use SOL in one or
more countries, which could adversely impact the price of SOL.
Cybersecurity Risk. In the past, flaws in the source code for
digital asset networks and related protocols have been discovered, including
those that resulted in the theft of users’ digital assets. Several errors and
defects have been publicly found and corrected, including those that disabled
some functionality for users and exposed users’ personal information. Discovery
of flaws in or exploitations of the source code that allow malicious actors to
take or create money in contravention of known network rules has occurred.
Additionally, if a
malicious actor or botnet (i.e., a volunteer or hacked collection of computers
controlled by networked software coordinating the actions of the computers)
obtains control of more than 50% of the validating power of the Solana network,
such actor or botnet could alter the digital transaction ledger, or
“blockchain,” that records transactions in and ownership of SOL and adversely
affect the value of SOL.
By using computers that
appear to be participating in the Solana network, but that are not in fact
connected to the network (so-called “cancer nodes”), a malicious actor can
disconnect the target user from the SOL economy entirely by refusing to relay
any blocks or transactions.
Separate from the
cybersecurity risks of the Solana protocol, entities that custody or facilitate
the transfers or trading of SOL have been frequent and successful targets of
cybersecurity attacks, leading to significant theft of SOL. If any of these
exploitations or attacks occur, it could result in a loss of public confidence
in SOL, a decline in the value of SOL and, as a result, adversely impact an
investment in the Shares.
Risks
Related to the Trust and the Shares
Expense Risk. The Trust’s returns will not
match the performance of SOL because the Trust incurs the Sponsor Fee and may
incur other expenses.
Risk That Market Price of Shares May Reflect a
Discount or Premium to NAV. The NAV of the Trust may not always
correspond to the market price of its Shares for a number of reasons, including
price volatility, levels of trading activity, differences between the normal
trading hours for the Trust and the underlying SOL market, the calculation
methodology of the NAV, demand or supply for Shares of the Trust in excess of an
Authorized Participant’s ability to create or redeem Shares and/or the closing
of SOL trading platforms due to fraud, failure, security breaches or otherwise.
As a result, the NAV of the Shares included in Creation Baskets may differ from
the market price of the Shares.
Cash Creations and Redemptions. The extent of
the Trust’s use of cash creations and redemptions, as opposed to in-kind
creations and redemptions, may adversely affect the arbitrage transactions by
Authorized Participants intended to keep the price of the Shares closely linked
to the price of SOL and, as a result, the price of the Shares may fall or
otherwise diverge from NAV. The use of cash creations and redemptions could
cause delays in trade execution due to potential operational issues arising from
implementing a cash creation and redemption model. Such delays could cause the
execution price associated with such trades to materially deviate from the
Benchmark price used to determine the NAV. Even though the Authorized
Participant is responsible for the dollar cost of such difference in prices,
Authorized Participants could default on their obligations to the Trust, or such
potential risks and costs could lead to Authorized Participants to elect to not
participate in the Trust’s Share creation and redemption processes, which may
adversely affect the arbitrage mechanism, and as a result, the price of the
Shares may fall or otherwise diverge from NAV. If the arbitrage mechanism is not
effective, purchases or sales of
Shares on the secondary
market could occur at a premium or discount to NAV, which could harm
Shareholders.
In-Kind Creations and
Redemptions. The use of in-kind creations and redemptions
of Shares, as opposed to cash creations and redemptions, could lead to
inefficiencies in the arbitrage mechanism. This may result in Shares trading at
significant premiums or discounts to their NAV. The Trust’s ability to create
and redeem in-kind is new, and broker-dealers may struggle to comply
with regulations, affecting their ability to participate
in in-kind transactions. Consequently, the Trust may have to rely more
on cash transactions, which could impair liquidity and widen bid/ask spreads.
This reliance on cash creations and redemptions could also increase costs for
investors and other market participants, particularly during times of market
volatility. Additionally, there is no assurance that broker-dealers will be
willing to serve as Authorized Participants for in-kind transactions,
potentially impacting the Trust’s performance and the value of the Shares.
RISK
FACTORS
You should consider
carefully the risks described below before making an investment decision. You
should also refer to the other information included in this Prospectus, as well
as information found in documents incorporated by reference in this Prospectus,
before you decide to purchase any Shares. These risk factors may be amended,
supplemented or superseded from time to time by risk factors contained in any
periodic report, prospectus supplement, post-effective amendment or in other
reports filed with the SEC in the future.
Risks
Related to Solana.
Digital
asset networks face significant scaling challenges and efforts to increase the
volume and speed of transactions may not be successful.
Many digital asset
networks, including the Solana network, face significant scaling challenges due
to the fact that public blockchains generally face a tradeoff between security
and scalability. One means through which public blockchains achieve security is
decentralization, meaning that no intermediary is responsible for securing and
maintaining these systems. For example, a greater degree of decentralization
generally means a given digital asset network is less susceptible to
manipulation or capture. In practice, this typically means that every single
validator on a given digital asset network is responsible for securing the
system by processing every transaction and every single full node is responsible
for maintaining a copy of the entire state of the network. As a result, a
digital asset network may be limited in the number of transactions it can
process by the fact that all validators participate in validating in each block
and the capabilities of each single fully participating node. Many developers are actively researching
and testing scalability solutions for public blockchains that do not necessarily
result in lower levels of security or decentralization, such as off-chain
payment channels. Off-chain payment channels would allow parties to transact
without requiring the full processing power of a blockchain.
On September 30, 2025, the
Solana network handled approximately 976
transactions per second. In an effort to increase the volume of transactions
that can be processed on a given digital asset network, many digital assets are
being upgraded with various features to increase the speed and throughput of
digital asset transactions. As corresponding increases in throughput lag the
growth in demand to settle transactions on digital asset networks, average fees
and settlement times may increase considerably. Since inception, transaction
fees on the Solana network have been comprised of a fixed base fee of 0.000005
SOL per transaction, plus a variable fee component based on the computation
resources used during the transaction as well as aggregate network activity. SOL
holders can also pay an additional prioritization fee to expedite their
transaction. The 30-day average transaction fee on September 30, 2025 was
$0.0127, which was equivalent to 0.00058 SOL. Increased fees and decreased
settlement speeds could preclude certain uses for SOL (e.g., micropayments), and
could reduce demand for, and the price of, SOL, which could adversely impact the
value of the Shares.
The rapid development of
other competing scalability solutions, such as those which would rely on
handling the bulk of computational work relating to transactions or smart
contracts and applications built on the Solana network (consistent with common usage, all such
applications are referred to as “decentralized applications” or “DApps”, whether
or not decentralized in fact) outside of the main Solana network and Solana blockchain, has caused
alternatives to sharding to emerge. “Layer 2” is a collective term for solutions
which are designed to help increase throughput and reduce transaction fees by
handling or validating transactions off the main Solana network (known as “Layer 1”) and then attempting
to take advantage of the perceived security and integrity advantages of the
Layer 1 Solana network by uploading the transactions validated on the Layer 2
protocol back to the Layer 1 Solana network. The details of how this is done
vary significantly between different Layer 2 technologies and implementations.
To date, the Solana network
community has not
coalesced overwhelmingly around any particular Layer 2 solution, though this
could change.
There is no guarantee that any of the mechanisms in
place or being explored for increasing the speed and throughput of settlement of
Solana network transactions will be effective, or how long these mechanisms will
take to become effective, which could cause the Solana network to not adequately resolve scaling challenges and
adversely impact the adoption of SOL and the Solana network and the value of the
Shares. There is no guarantee that any potential scaling solution, whether a
change to the Layer 1 Solana network like sharding or the introduction of a
Layer 2 solution, will achieve widespread adoption. It is possible that proposed
changes to the Layer 1 Solana network could
divide the community, potentially even causing a hard fork, or that the
decentralized governance of the Solana network causes network participants to fail to coalesce
overwhelmingly around any particular solution, causing the Solana
network to suffer reduced adoption or
causing nodes, users or validators to migrate to other blockchain networks. It
is also possible that scaling solutions could fail to work as intended or could
introduce bugs, coding defects or flaws, security risks, or other problems that
could cause them to suffer operational disruptions. Alternatively, if a
widely-used Layer 2 network were to fail, it could reduce demand for SOL because
it would eliminate a source of demand for using SOL to record transactions from
the Layer 2 onto the Layer 1 Solana network. Any of the foregoing could
adversely affect the price of SOL or the value of the Shares.
Market and Volatility Risk. SOL has exhibited
high price volatility relative to more traditional asset classes. For example,
there were steep increases in the value of certain digital assets, including
SOL, over the course of 2021. These increases were followed by steep drawdowns
throughout 2022. These episodes of rapid price appreciation followed by steep
drawdowns have occurred multiple times throughout SOL’s history. Over the past
three years (using data ending September 30, 2025), Solana has exhibited a
historical annualized volatility of 95% and maximum annual price decrease of
-42%. As of the date of this Prospectus, digital asset prices continued to
fluctuate in 2025.
The price of SOL on public
digital asset trading platforms has a limited history, and during this history,
has experienced periods of extreme volatility due to several unique factors.
Since its launch in 2020, the Solana network has suffered several high-profile
network outages and technical issues, which triggered sharp price swings. For
example, in September 2021, the Solana network experienced a significant
disruption and was offline for 17 hours and only returned to full functionality
24 hours later. This network outage was later attributed to a type of denial of
service attack. In 2022, the price of SOL experienced extreme volatility due to
the collapse of FTX Trading Ltd. (“FTX”) and Alameda Research and their close
association with the Serum protocol, a decentralized exchange on the Solana
network. In February 2023, a malfunction caused a validator to transmit an
exceptionally large block of SOL, which was several orders of magnitude larger
than a standard block, and caused an outage of nearly 19 hours. In February
2024, a bug in Agave (a validator program that is a fork of the original Solana
validator program), caused all validators running the program to stall on the
validation of a block, which caused a 5-hour outage. The SOL ecosystem has grown
rapidly since its creation, especially in its use of DeFi or open finance
platforms and launching NFTs on the Solana blockchain. This rapid growth
attracted speculative capital, which amplified SOL price movements. Further, SOL
exhibits a high degree of concentration in ownership, which increases the
susceptibility to large-scale sell-offs. These features, combined with the
technical complexity and innovation risk inherent in SOL’s architecture, may
result in price movements that are more severe and less correlated with broader
digital asset market trends, particularly during periods of network stress or
significant ecosystem developments. The development of the Solana network is
ongoing and any disruption could have a material adverse effect on the value of
SOL and an investment in the Shares.
Extreme volatility may
persist and the value of the Shares may significantly decline in the future
without recovery. The digital asset markets may still be experiencing a bubble
or may experience a bubble again in the future. For example, in the first half
of 2022, each of Celsius Network, Voyager Digital Ltd., and Three
Arrows Capital declared
bankruptcy, resulting in a loss of confidence in participants of the digital
asset ecosystem and negative publicity surrounding digital assets more broadly.
In November 2022, FTX, one of the largest digital asset trading platforms by
volume at the time, halted customer withdrawals amid rumors of the company’s
liquidity issues and likely insolvency, which were subsequently corroborated by
its CEO. Shortly thereafter, FTX’s CEO resigned and FTX and many of its
affiliates filed for bankruptcy in the United States, while other affiliates
have entered insolvency, liquidation, or similar proceedings around the globe,
following which the U.S. Department of Justice brought criminal fraud and other
charges, and the SEC and CFTC brought civil securities and commodities fraud
charges, against certain of FTX’s and its affiliates’ senior executives,
including its former CEO. In addition, several other entities in the digital
asset industry filed for bankruptcy following FTX’s bankruptcy filing, such as
BlockFi Inc. and Genesis Global Capital, LLC (“Genesis”). In response to these
events, the digital asset markets have experienced extreme price volatility and
other entities in the digital asset industry have been, and may continue to be,
negatively affected, further undermining confidence in the digital asset
markets. These events have also negatively impacted the liquidity of the digital
asset markets as certain entities affiliated with FTX engaged in significant
trading activity. Some sources report the price of Solana declined 94% overall
in 2022, including over 50% in the two months following FTX’s declaration of
bankruptcy. The 2022 events also negatively impacted the liquidity of the
digital asset markets as certain entities affiliated with FTX engaged in
significant trading activity. If the liquidity of the digital asset markets
continues to be negatively impacted by these or similar events, digital asset
prices, including SOL, may continue to experience significant volatility or
price declines and confidence in the digital asset markets may be further
undermined.
While regulatory and
enforcement scrutiny increased through the end of 2024, including from, among
others, the Department of Justice, the SEC, the CFTC, the White House and
Congress, as well as state regulators and authorities, the new U.S. presidential
administration has signaled its desire to strengthen U.S. leadership in the
digital assets space through the issuance of executive orders and the
establishment of an interagency working group that is tasked with proposing a
regulatory framework governing the issuance and operation of digital assets in
the United States in early 2025. Meanwhile, the SEC officially rescinded
Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 and established a new “Crypto Task Force” focused
on providing clarity on the application of the federal securities laws to
digital assets and collaborating with the digital assets industry and the public
towards establishing an appropriate regulatory framework. Certain members of
Congress have also outlined a proposed bicameral roadmap for digital asset
legislation to address inconsistencies in digital asset classifications. In
2023, the D.C. Circuit Court found that the SEC’s denial of the Grayscale
Bitcoin Trust’s listing was “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative
Procedures Act in light of the SEC’s approval of two similar bitcoin
futures-based exchange-traded products (“ETPs”). In the immediate aftermath of
this court decision, the price of bitcoin increased from nearly $26,000 to over
$28,100. After the results of the U.S. presidential election in November 2024,
the price of bitcoin rallied to an all-time high of over $100,000 in December
2024 based, in part, on the market’s perception that the new presidential
administration would be pro-cryptocurrency. The exact timeline and impact of
these recent regulatory developments on the Trust’s business is uncertain and it
is not possible to predict at this time what risks, if any, that regulatory
developments may pose to the Trust, its service providers or to the digital
asset industry as a whole.
Extreme volatility in the
future, including further declines in the trading prices of SOL, could have a
material adverse effect on the value of the Shares and the Shares could lose all
or substantially all of their value. The Trust is not actively managed and will
not take any actions to take advantage, or mitigate the impacts, of volatility
in the price of SOL.
The
value of the Trust’s investments in SOL could decline rapidly, including to
zero.
SOL’s
historical volatility may be due to speculation regarding potential future
appreciation in value, which could adversely affect an investment in the
Shares.
Momentum investing
typically is associated with growth stocks and other assets whose valuation, as
determined by the investing public, is impacted by anticipated future
appreciation in value. Momentum investing in SOL may have contributed, and may
continue to contribute, to speculation regarding potential future appreciation
in the value of SOL, inflating and making these prices more volatile. As a
result, SOL may be more likely to fluctuate in value due to changing investor
confidence in future appreciation or depreciation in prices, which could
adversely affect the price of SOL, and, in turn, an investment in the
Trust.
Some
market observers have asserted that the SOL market often experiences pricing
“bubbles” and have predicted that, in time, the value of SOL will fall to a
fraction of its current value, or even to zero.
SOL has not been in
existence long enough for market participants to assess these predictions with
any precision, but if these observers are even partially correct, an investment
in the Shares may turn out to be substantially worthless.
The
price of SOL may be impacted by the behavior of a small number of influential
individuals or companies.
The price of SOL has
experienced increased volatility resulting from the statements and actions of
individuals in the SOL and broader technology community. Filings by companies
and social media statements by prominent individuals have in the past and may in
the future have an outsized impact on the price of SOL relative to fundamental
value considerations. To the extent that the actions of one or more companies or
individuals leads to an increase in the price of SOL, a reversal of such
position by the company or individual may have a sharp, negative impact on the
price of SOL and the value of the Shares.
Adoption
Risk.
User
adoption of SOL may slow down, stop, or reverse.
The further development
and acceptance of the Solana network, which is part of a new and rapidly
changing industry, is subject to a variety of factors that are difficult to
evaluate. For example, the Solana network faces significant obstacles to
increasing the usage of SOL without resulting in higher fees or slower
transaction settlement times, and attempts to increase the volume of
transactions may not be effective. The slowing, stopping or reversing of the
development or acceptance of the Solana network may adversely affect the price
of SOL and therefore an investment in the Shares.
The use of SOL to, among
other things, buy and sell goods and services is part of a new and rapidly
evolving industry that employs digital assets based upon computer-generated
mathematical and/or cryptographic protocols. SOL is a prominent, but not unique,
part of this industry. The growth of this industry is subject to a high degree
of uncertainty. The factors affecting the further development of this industry,
include, but are not limited to:
|
• |
continued worldwide growth or possible cessation or reversal in the
adoption and use of SOL and other digital
assets; |
|
• |
government and quasi-government regulation of SOL and other digital
assets and their use, including taxation of SOL transactions, or
restrictions on or regulation of access to and operation of the Solana
network and other digital asset networks; |
|
• |
changes in consumer demographics and public tastes and preferences,
including the possibility that market participants may come to prefer
other digital assets to SOL for a variety of reasons, including that such
other digital currencies may have features (like different consensus
mechanisms) or uses that SOL lacks; |
|
• |
the maintenance and development of the open-source software protocol
of the Solana network; |
|
• |
the availability and popularity of other forms or methods of buying
and selling goods and services, including new means of using fiat
currencies; |
|
• |
the use of the networks supporting digital assets for developing
smart contracts and distributed applications; |
|
• |
general economic conditions and the regulatory environment relating
to digital assets; |
|
• |
because of the energy usage required for mining certain digital
assets (applicable to proof-of-work blockchains), regulation stemming from
energy usage and/or climate concerns; and |
|
• |
negative consumer or public perception of SOL specifically and other
digital assets generally. |
Currently,
there is relatively limited use of SOL in the retail and commercial marketplace
in comparison to relatively extensive use as a store of value, thus contributing
to price volatility that could adversely affect an investment in the
Shares.
SOL has only recently and
very selectively been accepted as a means of payment for goods and services by
some retail and commercial outlets, and the use of SOL by consumers to pay such
retail and commercial outlets remains extremely limited. Banks and other
established financial institutions may refuse to process funds for SOL
transactions; process wire transfers to or from SOL trading platforms,
SOL-related companies or service providers; or maintain accounts for persons or
entities transacting in SOL or providing SOL-related services. In addition, some
taxing jurisdictions, including the U.S., treat the use of SOL as a medium of
exchange for goods and services to be a taxable sale of SOL, which could
discourage the use of SOL as a medium of exchange, especially for a holder of
SOL that has appreciated in value. See “—Regulatory Risk—The tax treatment of
SOL (including staking of SOL) and transactions involving SOL for U.S. federal
income tax purpose is uncertain and may change, which could adversely affect the
value of an investment in the Shares.”
Conversely, a significant
portion of SOL’s demand is generated by investors seeking to profit from the
short- or long-term holding of the asset. Price volatility undermines SOL’s role
as a medium of exchange, as retailers are much less likely to accept it as a
form of payment. Use of SOL as a medium of exchange and payment method may
always be low. A lack of expansion by SOL into retail and commercial markets, or
a contraction of such use, may result in damage to the public perception of SOL
and the utility of SOL as a payment system, increased volatility or a reduction
in the value of SOL, all of which could adversely impact an investment in the
Shares. There can be no assurance that such acceptance will grow, or not
decline, in the future.
While bitcoin, the first
widely used digital asset, and many other digital assets were created and mainly
serve as a form of money, digital assets can be used to do more complicated
things. Some digital assets were built specifically with more complex use cases
in mind. For example, the Solana network was designed primarily to facilitate
smart contracts, with the digital asset SOL serving as the transactional
mechanism for many portions of such contracts. Smart contracts are programs that
automatically execute on a blockchain, allowing for a myriad of interesting
applications to be built. It is possible that market demand for digital assets
with use cases beyond serving as a form of money could over time reduce the
market demand for SOL, which would adversely impact the price of SOL and, as a
result, an investment in the Shares. Additionally, certain digital assets use
non-blockchain technologies, like Directed Acyclic Graph
data structures, to
maintain consensus. To the extent market participants come to prefer these other
consensus mechanisms or digital assets that use non-blockchain technology, the
value of SOL, and therefore an investment in the Shares, may be adversely
affected.
Competition
from central bank digital currencies (“CBDCs”) and other digital assets could
adversely affect the value of SOL and other digital assets.
Central banks have
introduced digital forms of legal tender (CBDCs). China’s CBDC project, known as
Digital Currency Electronic Payment, has reportedly been tested in a live pilot
program conducted in multiple cities in China. A recent study published by the
Bank for International Settlements estimated that at least 36 central banks have
published retail or wholesale CBDC work ranging from research to pilot projects.
Whether or not they incorporate blockchain or similar technology, CBDCs, as a
form of legal tender in the issuing jurisdiction, could have an advantage in
competing with, or replace, SOL and other digital assets as a medium of exchange
or store of value. As a result, the value of SOL could decrease, which could
adversely affect an investment in the Trust.
Competing
digital assets may adversely affect the value of SOL and digital assets.
Promoters of other digital
assets claim that those digital assets have solved certain of the purported
drawbacks of the Solana network, for example, allowing faster settlement times,
reducing gas fees, or reducing electricity usage in connection with mining. If
these digital assets are successful, such success could reduce demand for SOL
and adversely affect the value of SOL and an investment in the Trust.
Prices
of SOL may be affected due to stablecoins (including Tether and U.S. Dollar Coin
(“USDC”)), the activities of stablecoin issuers and their regulatory
treatment.
While the Trust does not invest in stablecoins,
it may nonetheless be exposed to these and other risks that stablecoins pose for
the SOL market through its trading in SOL. Stablecoins are digital assets
designed to have a stable value over time as compared to typically volatile
digital assets, and are typically marketed as being pegged to a fiat currency,
such as the U.S. dollar. Although the prices of stablecoins are intended to be
stable, in many cases their prices fluctuate, sometimes significantly. This
volatility has in the past apparently impacted the price of SOL. Stablecoins are
a relatively new phenomenon, and it is impossible to know all of the risks that
they could pose to participants in the SOL market. In addition, some have argued
that some stablecoins, particularly Tether, are improperly issued without
sufficient backing in a way that could cause artificial rather than genuine
demand for SOL, raising its price, and also argue that those associated with
certain stablecoins are involved in laundering money. For example, on February
17, 2021, the New York Attorney General entered into an agreement with Tether’s
operators, requiring them to cease any further trading activity with New York
persons and pay $18.5 million in penalties for false and misleading statements
made regarding the assets backing Tether. On October 15, 2021, the CFTC
announced a settlement with Tether’s operators in which they agreed to pay $42.5
million in fines to settle charges that, among others, Tether’s claims that it
maintained sufficient U.S. dollar reserves to back every Tether stablecoin in
circulation with the “equivalent amount of corresponding fiat currency” held by
Tether were untrue.
USDC is a reserve-backed
stablecoin issued by Circle Internet Financial that is commonly used as a method
of payment in digital asset markets, including the SOL market. The issuer of
USDC uses the Circle Reserve Fund to hold cash, U.S. Treasury bills, notes and
other obligations issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S.
Treasury, and repurchase agreements secured by such obligations or cash, which
serve as reserves backing USDC stablecoins. While USDC is designed to maintain a
stable value at 1 U.S. dollar at all times, on March 10, 2023, the value of USDC
fell below $1.00 for multiple days after Circle Internet Financial disclosed
that $3.3 billion of the USDC reserves were held at Silicon Valley Bank, which
had
entered FDIC receivership
earlier that day. Stablecoins are reliant on the U.S. banking system and the
U.S. treasuries market, and the failure of either to function normally could
impede the function of stablecoins, and therefore could adversely affect the
value of the Shares.
Given the foundational
role that stablecoins play in global digital asset markets, their fundamental
liquidity can have a dramatic impact on the broader digital asset market,
including the market for SOL. Because a large portion of the digital asset
market still depends on stablecoins such as Tether and USDC, there is a risk
that a disorderly de-pegging or a “run” on Tether or USDC could lead to dramatic
market volatility in digital assets more broadly. In the United States, the
GENIUS Act, which establishes a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins,
was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Trump on
July 18, 2025. Although increasing regulatory clarity for stablecoins is
generally viewed in a positive light, volatility in stablecoins,
operational issues with stablecoins (for example, technical issues that prevent
settlement), concerns about the sufficiency of any reserves that support
stablecoins or potential manipulative activity when unbacked stablecoins are
used to pay for other digital assets (including SOL), or regulatory compliance
concerns about stablecoin issuers or intermediaries, such as trading platforms,
that support stablecoins, could impact individuals’ willingness to trade on
trading platforms that rely on stablecoins, reduce liquidity in the SOL market,
and affect the value of SOL, and in turn impact an investment in the
Shares.
The
open-source structure of the Solana network protocol means that certain core
developers and other contributors may not be directly compensated for their
contributions in maintaining and developing the Solana network protocol. A
failure to properly monitor and upgrade the Solana network protocol could damage
the Solana network.
The Solana network operates based on
open-source protocol maintained by a group of core developers and other
contributors, largely on the GitHub resource section dedicated to Solana network
development. As new SOL are rewarded solely for validator activity (other than
the 500 million minted in 2018 upon launch of the Solana testnet) and are not
sold on an ongoing basis to generate revenue to support development activity,
and the Solana network protocol itself is made available for free rather than
sold or made available subject to licensing or subscription fees and its use
does not generate revenues for its development team, the core developers are
generally not compensated for maintaining and updating the source code for the
Solana network protocol. Consequently, there is a lack of financial incentive
for developers to maintain or develop the Solana network and the core developers
may lack the resources to adequately address emerging issues with the Solana
network protocol. Although the Solana network is currently supported by the core
developers, there can be no guarantee that such support will continue or be
sufficient in the future. The perception that high-profile contributors may no
longer contribute to the network may have an adverse effect on the market price
of any related digital assets. For example, in June 2017, an unfounded rumor
circulated that Ethereum core developer Vitalik Buterin had died. Following the
rumor, the price of ether decreased approximately 20% before recovering after
Buterin himself dispelled the rumor. Some have speculated that the rumor led to
the decrease in the price of ether. In the event a high-profile contributor to
the Solana network, such as Anatoly Yakovenko, is perceived as no longer
contributing to the Solana network due to death, retirement, withdrawal,
incapacity, or otherwise, whether or not such perception is valid, it could
negatively affect the price of Solana, which could adversely impact the value of
the Shares.
Alternatively, some developers may be funded by
entities whose interests are at odds with other participants in the Solana
network. In addition, a bad actor could also attempt to interfere with the
operation of the Solana network by attempting to exercise a malign influence
over a core developer. To the extent that material issues arise with the Solana
network protocol and the core developers and open-source contributors are unable
to address the issues adequately or in a timely manner, the Solana network and
an investment in the Trust may be adversely affected.
Lack
of clarity in the corporate governance of SOL may lead to ineffective
decision-making that slows development or prevents the Solana network from
overcoming important obstacles.
Governance of
decentralized networks, such as the Solana network, is by voluntary consensus
and open competition. Solana has no central decision-making body or clear manner
in which participants can come to an agreement other than through overwhelming
consensus. The lack of clarity on governance may adversely affect SOL’s utility
and ability to grow and face challenges, both of which may require solutions and
a directed effort to overcome problems, especially long-term problems.
To the extent lack of
clarity in corporate governance of SOL leads to ineffective decision-making that
slows development and growth, the value of the Shares may be adversely
affected.
Cybersecurity
Risk Related to Solana.
Flaws
in the source code of Solana, or flaws in the underlying cryptography, could
leave the Solana network vulnerable to a multitude of attack vectors.
If the source code or
cryptography underlying SOL proves to be flawed or ineffective, malicious actors
may be able to steal SOL held by others, which could negatively impact the
demand for SOL and therefore adversely impact the price of SOL. In the past,
flaws in the source code for SOL have been discovered, including those that
resulted in the loss of users’ SOL. Several errors and defects have been
publicly found and corrected, including those that disabled some functionality
for users and exposed users’ personal information. Discovery of flaws in or
exploitations of the source code that allow malicious actors to take or create
money in contravention of known network rules have occurred. In addition, the
cryptography underlying SOL could prove to be flawed or ineffective, or
developments in mathematics and/or technology, including advances in digital
computing, algebraic geometry and quantum computing, could result in such
cryptography becoming ineffective. In any of these circumstances, a malicious
actor may be able to steal SOL held by others, which could adversely affect the
demand for SOL and therefore adversely impact the price of SOL. Even if the
affected digital asset is not SOL, any reduction in confidence in the source
code or cryptography underlying digital assets generally could negatively impact
the demand for SOL and therefore adversely affect an investment in the
Shares.
The Solana network is
currently vulnerable to several types of attacks, including:
|
• |
“>33% attack” where, if a validator or group of validators were to
gain control of more than 33% of the total staked SOL on the Solana
network, a malicious actor could temporarily impede or delay block
confirmation or even cause a temporary fork in the
blockchain. |
|
• |
“>50% attack” where, if a validator or group of validators acting
in concert were to gain control of more than 50% of the total staked SOL
on the Solana network, a malicious actor would be able to gain full
control of the Solana network and the ability to manipulate future
transactions on the blockchain, including censoring transactions,
double-spending and fraudulent block propagation, potentially for an
extended period or even permanently. In theory, the minority non-attackers
might reach social consensus to reject blocks proposed by the malicious
majority attacker, reducing the attacker’s ability to engage in malicious
activity, but there can be no assurance this would happen or that
non-attackers would be able to coordinate
effectively. |
|
• |
“>66% attack” where, if a validator or group of validators acting
in concert were to gain control of more than 66% of the total staked SOL
on the Solana network, a malicious actor could permanently and
irreversibly manipulate the blockchain, including censorship,
double-spending and fraudulent block propagation. The attacker could
finalize their preferred chain without any consideration for the votes of
other stakers and could also revert finalized
blocks. |
If a malicious actor,
group or botnet (a voluntary or hacked collection of computers controlled by
networked software coordinating the actions of the computers) obtains a majority
(over 50%) of the validating power on the Solana network, it may be able to
alter the Solana blockchain on which transactions in SOL rely by constructing
fraudulent blocks or preventing certain transactions from completing in a timely
manner, or at all. The malicious actor or botnet could also control, exclude or
modify the ordering of transactions. Although the malicious actor or botnet
would not be able to generate new tokens or transactions using such control, it
could “double-spend” its own tokens (i.e., spend the same tokens in more than
one transaction) and prevent the confirmation of other users’ transactions for
so long as it maintained control (over 50%). To the extent that such malicious
actor or botnet did not yield its control of the validating power on the Solana
network or the Solana community did not reject the fraudulent blocks as
malicious, reversing any changes made to the Solana blockchain may not be
possible. If the malicious actor were to gain control of more than 33% of the
total staked SOL on the Solana network, they could temporarily impede or delay
block confirmation or even cause a temporary fork in the blockchain, but it is
not believed that they could in double-spending or fraudulent block propagation.
Even without 33% control, a malicious actor or botnet could create a flood of
transactions in order to slow down the Solana network (similar to a
denial-of-service attack).
Some digital asset
networks have been subject to malicious activity achieved through control over
50% of the processing power on the network. For example, on May 24, 2018, it was
reported that attackers compromised the Bitcoin Gold network in this manner and
were successfully able to double-spend units of ether gold in a series of
transactions over the course of at least one week and in a total amount of at
least $18 million. In addition, in May 2019, the Bitcoin Cash network
experienced a 51% attack when two large mining pools reversed a series of
transactions in order to stop an unknown miner from taking advantage of a flaw
in a recent Bitcoin Cash protocol upgrade. Although this particular attack was
arguably benevolent, the fact that such coordinated activity was able to occur
may negatively impact perceptions of the Bitcoin Cash network. Although the two
attacks described above took place on proof-of-work-based networks, it is
possible that a similar attack may occur on the proof-of-stake Solana network,
which could negatively impact the value of SOL and the value of the
Shares. Furthermore, in August 2020, the Ethereum Classic Network was the
target of two double-spend attacks by an unknown actor or actors that gained
more than 50% of the processing power of the Ethereum Classic network. The
attacks resulted in reorganizations of the Ethereum Classic blockchain that
allowed the attacker or attackers to reverse previously recorded transactions in
excess of $5.0 million and $1.0 million. Other digital assets such as Verge,
Monacoin and Electroneum have also suffered similar attacks. To the extent that
the Solana ecosystem, including the core developers and the administrators of
mining pools, does not act to ensure greater decentralization of mining
processing power, the feasibility of a malicious actor obtaining control of the
processing power on the Solana network will increase, which may adversely affect
an investment in the Shares. See “—Regulatory Risk.”
Although there are no known reports of
malicious activity on, or control of, the Solana network, it is possible that
certain groups of coordinating or connected SOL holders may together have more
than 50% of outstanding SOL, which if staked and if the users run validators,
would permit them to exert authority over the validation of SOL transactions.
This risk is heightened if over 50% of the processing power on the network falls
within the jurisdiction of a single governmental authority. If network
participants, including the core developers and the administrators of validating
pools, do not act to ensure greater decentralization of SOL, the feasibility of
a malicious actor obtaining control of the validating power on the Solana
network will increase, which may adversely affect the value of the Shares.
A malicious actor may also
obtain control over the Solana network through its influence over core or
influential developers. For example, this could allow the malicious actor to
stymie legitimate network development efforts or attempt to introduce malicious
code to the network under the guise of a software improvement proposal by such a
developer. To the extent that the Solana ecosystem fails to attract a
significant number of
users, the possibility that a malicious actor may be able to obtain control of
the Solana network in this manner will remain heightened.
By using cancer nodes, a
malicious actor can disconnect the target user from the SOL economy entirely by
refusing to relay any blocks or transactions.
Separate from the
cybersecurity risks of the Solana protocol, entities that custody or facilitate
the transfers or trading of SOL have been frequent and successful targets of
cybersecurity attacks, leading to significant theft of SOL.
See “Solana and the Solana
Market—Solana and the Solana Network—Forms of Attack Against the Solana
Network.”
If any of these
exploitations or attacks occur, it could result in a loss of public confidence
in SOL and a decline in the value of SOL and, as a result, adversely impact an
investment in the Shares.
Smart
contracts are new and their ongoing development and operation may result in
problems or be subject to errors or hacks, which could reduce the demand for SOL
or cause a wider loss of confidence in the Solana network, either of which could
have an adverse impact on the value of SOL.
Since smart contracts
typically cannot be stopped or reversed, vulnerabilities in their programming
(i.e., coding errors) can have damaging effects. For instance, coding errors may
potentially create vulnerabilities that allow an attacker to drain the funds
associated with the smart contract, cause issues or render the protocol
unusable. There have been a number of vulnerabilities in various smart contract
implementations exploited by hackers since the launch of the Ethereum network in
2015 that have resulted in the loss of ether from accounts. For example, in
February 2022, a vulnerability in a smart contract for Wormhole, a bridge
between the Ethereum and Solana networks, led to a $320 million theft of ether.
While persons associated with Solana Labs and/or the Solana Foundation are
understood to have played a key role in bringing the network back online, the
broader community also played a key role, as Solana validators coordinated to
upgrade and restart the network. Problems with the development, deployment, and
operation of smart contracts may have an adverse effect on the value of
SOL.
In some cases, smart
contracts can be controlled by one or more “admin keys” or users with special
privileges, or “super users”. These users may have the ability to unilaterally
make changes to the smart contract, enable or disable features on the smart
contract, change how the smart contract receives external inputs and data, and
make other changes to the smart contract.
Many applications
associated with DeFi are currently deployed on the Solana network, and smart
contracts relating to DeFi applications currently represent a significant source
of demand for SOL. For smart contracts that hold a pool of digital asset
reserves, smart contract super users or admin key holders may be able to extract
funds from the pool, liquidate assets held in the pool, or take other actions
that decrease the value of the digital assets held by the smart contract in
reserves. Even for digital assets that have adopted a decentralized governance
mechanism, such as smart contracts that are governed by the holders of a
governance token, such governance tokens can be concentrated in the hands of a
small group of core community members, who would be able to make similar changes
unilaterally to the smart contract. If any such super user or group of core
members unilaterally make adverse changes to a smart contract, the design,
functionality, features and value of the smart contract, its related digital
assets may be harmed. In addition, assets held by the smart contract in reserves
may be stolen, misused, burnt, locked up or otherwise become unusable and
irrecoverable. Super users can also become targets of hackers and malicious
attackers. Furthermore, the underlying smart contracts may be insecure, contain
bugs or other vulnerabilities, or otherwise may not work as intended. Any of the
foregoing could cause users of the DeFi application to be
negatively affected, or
could cause the DeFi application to be the subject of negative publicity.
Because DeFi applications may be built on the Solana network and represent a
significant source of demand for SOL, public confidence in the Solana network
itself could be negatively affected, and the value of SOL could decrease.
SOL
transactions are irrevocable and stolen or incorrectly transferred SOL may be
irretrievable. As a result, any incorrectly executed SOL transactions could
adversely affect an investment in the Trust.
SOL transactions are not
reversible. Once a transaction has been verified and recorded in a block that is
added to the Solana blockchain, an incorrect transfer of a digital asset, such
as SOL, or a theft of SOL generally will not be reversible and the Trust may not
be capable of seeking compensation for any such transfer or theft. To the extent
that the Trust is unable to successfully seek redress for such error or theft,
such loss could adversely affect an investment in the Trust.
The custody of the Trust’s
SOL is handled by the Solana Custodian, and the transfer of SOL to and from
Authorized Participants or their agents is directed by the Sponsor. If the
Solana Custodian’s internal procedures and controls are inadequate to safeguard
the Trust’s SOL holdings, and the Trust’s private key(s) is (are) lost,
destroyed or otherwise compromised and no backup of the private key(s) is (are)
accessible, the Trust will be unable to access its SOL, which could adversely
affect an investment in the Shares of the Trust. In addition, if the Trust’s
private key(s) is (are) misappropriated and the Trust’s SOL holdings are stolen,
including from or by the Solana Custodian, the Trust could lose some or all of
its SOL holdings, which could adversely impact an investment in the Shares of
the Trust.
Security
threats to the Trust’s account with the Solana Custodian could result in the
halting of Trust operations and a loss of Trust assets or damage to the
reputation of the Trust, each of which could result in a reduction in the price
of the Shares.
The Trust and its service
providers’ use of internet, technology and information systems (including mobile
devices and cloud-based service offerings) may expose the Trust to potential
risks linked to cyber-security breaches of those technological or information
systems. Security breaches, computer malware, ransomware and computer hacking
attacks have been a prevalent concern in relation to digital assets. The Sponsor
believes that the Trust’s SOL held in the Trust’s account with the Solana
Custodian will be an appealing target to hackers or malware distributors seeking
to destroy, damage or steal the Trust’s SOL and will only become more appealing
as the Trust’s assets grow. To the extent that the Trust, the Sponsor or the
Solana Custodian is unable to identify and mitigate or stop new security threats
or otherwise adapt to technological changes in the digital asset industry, the
Trust’s SOL may be subject to theft, loss, destruction or other attack.
The Sponsor has evaluated
the security procedures in place for safeguarding the Trust’s SOL. Nevertheless,
the security procedures cannot guarantee the prevention of any loss due to a
security breach, software defect or act of God that may be borne by the
Trust.
The security procedures
and operational infrastructure may be breached due to the actions of outside
parties, error or malfeasance of an employee of the Sponsor, the Solana
Custodian, or otherwise, and, as a result, an unauthorized party may obtain
access to the Trust’s account with the Solana Custodian, the private keys (and
therefore SOL) or other data of the Trust. Additionally, outside parties may
attempt to fraudulently induce employees of the Sponsor, the Solana Custodian,
or the Trust’s other service providers to disclose sensitive information in
order to gain access to the Trust’s infrastructure. As the techniques used to
obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems
change frequently, or may be designed to remain dormant until a predetermined
event and often are not recognized until launched against a target,
the Sponsor and the Solana
Custodian may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate
preventative measures.
An actual or perceived
breach of the Trust’s account with the Solana Custodian could harm the Trust’s
operations, result in partial or total loss of the Trust’s assets, damage the
Trust’s reputation and negatively affect the market perception of the
effectiveness of the Trust, all of which could in turn reduce demand for the
Shares, resulting in a reduction in the price of the Shares. The Trust may also
cease operations, the occurrence of which could similarly result in a reduction
in the price of the Shares.
While the Sponsor has
established business continuity plans and systems that it believes are
reasonably designed to prevent cyber attacks, there are inherent limitations in
such plans and systems including the possibility that certain risks have not
been, or cannot be, identified. Service providers may have limited
indemnification obligations to the Trust, which could be negatively impacted as
a result.
If
the Solana Custody Agreement is terminated or the Solana Custodian or the Prime
Broker or Staking Provider fail to provide services as required, the Sponsor may
need to find and appoint a replacement custodian, prime broker and/or staking
provider, which could pose a challenge to the safekeeping and safe transfer of
the Trust’s SOL, and the Trust’s ability to continue to operate may be adversely
affected.
The Trust is dependent on
the Solana Custodian and Prime Broker to operate. The Solana Custodian performs
essential functions in terms of safekeeping the Trust’s SOL, and its affiliate,
Coinbase may be utilized by the Trust to facilitate the selling of SOL by the
Trust to pay the Sponsor Fee and, to the extent applicable, other Trust
expenses, to liquidate staking rewards for cash to pay quarterly distributions,
or in certain circumstances, to purchase and sell SOL in connection with cash
creation or redemption transactions. If the Solana Custodian or Prime Broker
fail to perform the functions they perform for the Trust due to insolvency,
business failure or interruption, default, failure to perform, security breach,
or other problems affecting the Solana Custodian or the Prime Broker, the Trust
may be unable to operate or create or redeem Creation Baskets, which could force
the Trust to liquidate or adversely affect the price of the Shares.
Additionally, the Trust
depends on Staking Provider to execute staking. Staking rewards proceeds will
depend on the success of the Staking Provider, including the technology used by
such parties. If the Solana Custodian or a Staking Provider experiences
technical difficulties or service outages, or is otherwise unable to optimally
execute the staking program the Trust's receipt of staking rewards and the value
of the Shares may be adversely affected.
Similarly, if an Authorized Participant or a
Solana Trading Counterparty suffers insolvency, business failure or
interruption, default, failure to perform, security breach, or in certain
circumstances a force majeure event or if an Authorized Participant or a Solana
Trading Counterparty chooses not to participate in the creation and redemption
process of the Trust, and the Trust is unable to engage replacement Authorized
Participants or Solana Trading Counterparties or access alternative services on
commercially acceptable terms or at all, then the creation and redemption
process of the Trust, the arbitrage mechanism used to keep the Shares in line
with the NAV and the Trust’s operations generally could be negatively
affected.
In the event of any future
SEC or other governmental, regulatory or other enforcement action of litigation,
Coinbase could be required, as a result of a judicial determination, or could
choose, to restrict or curtail the services it offers, or its financial
condition and ability to provide prime brokerage services to the Trust could be
affected. If Coinbase were to be required or choose, as a result of a regulatory
action or litigation to restrict or curtail the services it offers, it could
negatively affect the Trust’s ability to operate or process creations or
redemptions of Creation Baskets, which could force the Trust to liquidate or
adversely affect the price of the Shares. While the Solana Custodian was not
named in the complaint, if Coinbase Global,
as the parent of the
Solana Custodian, is required, as a result of a judicial determination, or could
choose, to restrict or curtail the services its subsidiaries provide to the
Trust, or its financial condition is negatively affected, it could negatively
affect the Trust’s ability to operate.
If the Solana Agreement is
terminated, the Sponsor may not be able to find a party willing to serve as the
custodian of the Trust’s SOL or as the Trust’s prime broker under the same terms
as the current Solana Custody Agreement or at all. To the extent that Sponsor is
not able to find a suitable party willing to serve as the custodian or prime
broker, the Sponsor may be required to terminate the Trust and liquidate the
Trust’s SOL. In addition, to the extent that the Sponsor finds a suitable party
but must enter into a modified Solana Custody Agreement that is less favorable
for the Trust or Sponsor, the value of the Shares could be adversely
affected.
Loss
of a critical banking relationship for, or the failure of a bank used by, the
Execution Agent could adversely impact the Trust’s ability to create or redeem
Creation Baskets, or could cause losses to the Trust.
The Execution Agent is
responsible for selling SOL on behalf of the Trust to pay the Sponsor Fee and,
to the extent applicable, other Trust expenses. In addition, the Execution Agent
will purchase or sell SOL in connection with cash creations and redemptions. The
Execution Agent may rely on bank accounts to provide its execution services and
hold any cash related to a customer’s purchase or sale of SOL. To the extent
that the Execution Agent faces difficulty establishing or maintaining banking
relationships, the loss of the Execution Agent’s banking partners or the
imposition of operational restrictions by these banking partners and the
inability for the Execution Agent to utilize other financial institutions may
result in a disruption of creation and redemption activity of the Trust, or
cause other operational disruptions or adverse effects for the Trust.
The Trust could also
suffer losses in the event that a bank in which the Execution Agent holds
customer cash fails, becomes insolvent, enters receivership, is taken over by
regulators, enters financial distress, or otherwise suffers adverse effects to
its financial condition or operational status. For example, Silvergate Bank,
Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank recently
experienced financial distress, including voluntary liquidation and
receiverships.
Changing circumstances and
market conditions, some of which may be beyond the Trust’s or the Sponsor’s
control, could impair the Trust’s ability to access the Trust’s cash associated
with the Trust’s orders to purchase or sell SOL in connection with payment of
the Sponsor Fee, and to the extent applicable, other Trust expenses, or in
connection with creation and redemption transactions. If the Execution Agent
were to experience financial distress or its financial condition is otherwise
affected by the failure of its banking partners, the Execution Agent’s ability
to provide services to the Trust could be affected. Moreover, the future failure
of a bank at which the Execution Agent maintains customer cash could result in
losses to the Trust, to the extent the balances are not subject to deposit
insurance.
The
Execution Agent may utilize the services of the Prime Broker to route Trust
orders through certain Connected Trading Venues. The loss or failure of any such
Connected Trading Venues may adversely affect the Execution Agent’s ability to
execute the Trust’s SOL transactions and cause losses for the Trust.
In connection with selling
SOL on behalf of the Trust, the Execution Agent (acting as agent of the Trust)
may elect to route SOL purchase or sale orders to a trading platform operated by
Coinbase, Inc., the Prime Broker. The Prime Broker provides access to a number
of trading platforms and venues where the Execution Agent, acting on behalf of
the Trust, may execute orders to buy and sell SOL (each such venue, a “Connected
Trading Venue”). In connection with these activities, the Prime Broker may hold
SOL with such Connected Trading Venues for a short time in order to effect the
Trust’s orders. If the Prime Broker
were unable to access to
these Connected Trading Venues, its trading services (and therefore the
Execution Agent’s services as well) could be adversely affected to the extent
that the Execution Agent is limited in its ability to execute order flow for the
Trust, and the Trust could suffer resulting losses or disruptions to its
operations. While the Prime Broker has policies and procedures to oversee
Connected Trading Venues, if any of these venues experience any technical,
legal, regulatory or other adverse events, such as shutdowns, delays, system
failures, suspension of withdrawals, illiquidity, insolvency, or loss of
customer assets, the Execution Agent, on behalf of the Trust, might not be able
to fully recover the Trust’s SOL.
A
disruption of the internet may affect the use of SOL and subsequently the value
of the Shares.
Solana is
dependent upon the internet. A significant disruption in internet connectivity
could disrupt the Solana network’s operations until the disruption is resolved
and have an adverse effect on the price of SOL. In particular, some variants of
digital assets have been subjected to a number of denial-of-service attacks,
which have led to temporary delays in block creation and in the transfer of the
digital assets. While in certain cases in response to an attack, an additional
hard fork has been introduced to increase the cost of certain network functions,
the relevant network has continued to be the subject of additional attacks.
Moreover, it is possible that if SOL increases in value, it may become a bigger
target for hackers and subject to more frequent hacking and denial-of-service
attacks.
Any future attacks that
impact the ability to transfer SOL could have a material adverse effect on the
price of SOL and the value of an investment in the Shares.
Regulatory
Risk.
As
SOL and the broader digital assets ecosystem has grown, it has begun to attract
more regulatory attention around the globe. The future regulatory environment is
uncertain and may vary by country or even within countries. Failure to
appropriately regulate the digital assets ecosystem could stifle innovation,
which could adversely impact the value of the Shares.
As SOL and digital assets
have grown in both popularity and market size, the U.S. Congress and a number of
U.S. federal and state agencies (including the Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network (“FinCEN”), SEC, OCC, CFTC, FINRA, the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau (“CFPB”), the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security,
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (the
“IRS”), state financial institution regulators, and others) have been examining
the operations of digital asset networks, digital asset users and the digital
asset trading platform market. Many of these state and federal agencies have
brought enforcement actions and issued advisories and rules relating to digital
asset markets. Although such actions were dismissed in 2025, since 2023 the SEC
has charged certain large U.S. digital asset trading platforms (Binance,
Coinbase and Kraken) with supporting the trading and settlement of securities in
violation of the U.S. federal securities laws. The U.S. Congress is also
actively preparing new legislation to address certain market structure issues
relating to digital assets and stablecoins. The outcome of this legislation is
unknown. Ongoing and future regulatory actions and federal legislation with
respect to digital assets generally or any single digital asset in particular
may alter, perhaps to a materially adverse extent, the nature of an investment
in the Shares and/or the ability of the Trust to continue to operate.
For example, the events of
2022, including among others the bankruptcy filings of FTX and its subsidiaries,
Three Arrows Capital, Celsius Network, Voyager Digital, Genesis, BlockFi and
others, and other developments in the digital asset markets, have resulted in
calls for heightened scrutiny and regulation of the digital asset industry, with
a specific focus on intermediaries such as digital asset trading platforms and
custodians. Federal and state legislatures and regulatory agencies may introduce
and enact new laws and regulations to regulate crypto asset intermediaries, such
as digital asset trading platforms and custodians.
The March 2023 collapses
of Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Bank, and Signature Bank, which in some cases
provided services to the digital assets industry, or similar future events, may
amplify and/or accelerate these trends. On January 3, 2023, the federal banking
agencies issued a joint statement on crypto-asset risks to banking organizations
following events which exposed vulnerabilities in the crypto-asset sector,
including the risk of fraud and scams, legal uncertainties, significant
volatility, and contagion risk. Although banking organizations are not
prohibited from crypto-asset related activities, the agencies have expressed
significant safety and soundness concerns with business models that are
concentrated in crypto-asset related activities or have concentrated exposures
to the crypto-asset sector.
U.S. federal and state
regulators, as well as the White House, issued reports and releases concerning
crypto assets, including Solana and crypto asset markets. Further, in 2023 the
House of Representatives formed two new subcommittees: the Digital Assets,
Financial Technology and Inclusion Subcommittee and the Commodity Markets,
Digital Assets, and Rural Development Subcommittee, each of which were formed in
part to analyze issues concerning crypto assets and demonstrate a legislative
intent to develop and consider the adoption of federal legislation designed to
address the perceived need for regulation of and concerns surrounding the crypto
industry. However, the extent and content of any forthcoming laws and
regulations are not yet ascertainable with certainty, and it may not be
ascertainable in the near future. A divided Congress makes any prediction
difficult. We cannot predict how these and other related events will affect us
or the crypto asset business.
President Trump has issued
executive orders addressing the administration’s intention to establish a
comprehensive digital asset regulatory framework. There have also been several
bills introduced in Congress that propose to establish additional regulation and
oversight of the digital asset markets.
On January 21, 2025, the
SEC’s acting Chairman Mark T. Uyeda announced the SEC Crypto Task Force. The
task force has an objective of developing a comprehensive and clear regulatory
framework for crypto assets. Following the task force announcement, on January
23, 2025, President Trump executed the Strengthening American Leadership in
Digital Financial Technology Executive Order. It is currently unknown how the
actions or recommendations of the task force and this Executive Order or future
governmental actions may impact the status of Solana or any other digital asset
as a “security” or how Solana or the Trust would be treated under any new or
revised regulatory framework.
President Trump’s January
23, 2025 Executive Order, titled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital
Financial Technology”, aimed to reorient the federal governments approach to
digital assets. The Executive Order emphasized the importance of the digital
asset industry in innovation and economic development, and outlined policies to
support the growth and use of digital assets, blockchain technology and related
technologies. President Trump’s order also revoked former President Biden’s
March 9, 2022 Executive Order, titled, “Responsible Development of Digital
Assets” and the U.S. Department of Treasury’s July 7, 2022 “Framework for
International Engagement of Digital Assets” and all policies, directives and
guidance issued pursuant to those items produced by the previous administration.
In July of 2025, President Trump’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets
released a report, “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial
Technology”, which directed the SEC and other government agencies to provide
additional clarity to on certain regulatory considerations in U.S.
cryptocurrency markets. The consequences of federal regulation of digital assets
and digital asset activities could have a material adverse effect on the Trust
and the Shares. If the Sponsor determines not to comply with such regulatory and
registration requirements, it may seek to cease certain or all of the Trust’s
operations. Any such action could have a material adverse effect on our
business, financial condition and results of operations.
It is not possible to
predict whether, or when, any of these developments will lead to Congress
granting additional authorities to the SEC or other regulators, what the nature
of such additional authorities might be, how additional legislation and/or
regulatory oversight might impact the ability of digital asset markets
to function or how any new
regulations or changes to existing regulations might impact the value of digital
assets generally and SOL held by the Trust specifically. The consequences of
increased federal regulation of digital assets and digital asset activities
could have a material adverse effect on the Trust and the Shares.
FinCEN requires any
administrator or exchanger of convertible digital assets to register with FinCEN
as a money transmitter and comply with the anti-money laundering regulations
applicable to money transmitters. Entities which fail to comply with such
regulations are subject to fines, may be required to cease operations, and could
have potential criminal liability. For example, in 2015, FinCEN assessed a
$700,000 fine against a sponsor of a digital asset for violating several
requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act by acting as a money services business and
selling the digital asset without registering with FinCEN, and by failing to
implement and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program. In 2017,
FinCEN assessed a $110 million fine against BTC-e, a now defunct digital asset
trading platform, for similar violations. The requirement that trading platforms
that do business in the U.S. register with FinCEN and comply with anti-money
laundering regulations may increase the cost of buying and selling SOL and
therefore may adversely affect the price of SOL and an investment in the
Shares.
The Office of Foreign
Assets Control (“OFAC”) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (the “U.S.
Treasury Department”) has added digital currency addresses to the list of
Specially Designated Nationals whose assets are blocked, and with whom U.S.
persons are generally prohibited from dealing. Such actions by OFAC, or by
similar organizations in other jurisdictions, may introduce uncertainty in the
market as to whether a digital asset that has been associated with such
addresses in the past can be easily sold. This “tainted” digital asset may trade
at a substantial discount to an untainted digital asset. Reduced fungibility in
the digital asset markets may reduce the liquidity of such digital assets and
therefore adversely affect their price.
In February 2020,
then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated that digital assets were a
“crucial area” on which the U.S. Treasury Department has spent significant time.
Secretary Mnuchin announced that the U.S. Treasury Department is preparing
significant new regulations governing digital asset activities to address
concerns regarding the potential use for facilitating money laundering and other
illicit activities. In December 2020, FinCEN, a bureau within the U.S. Treasury
Department, proposed a rule that would require financial institutions to submit
reports, keep records, and verify the identity of customers for certain
transactions to or from so-called “unhosted” wallets, also commonly referred to
as self-hosted wallets. In January 2021, U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee Janet
Yellen stated her belief that regulators should “look closely at how to
encourage the use of digital assets for legitimate activities while curtailing
their use for malign and illegal activities.”
Under regulations from the
New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYSDFS”), businesses involved
in digital asset business activity for third parties in or involving New York,
excluding merchants and consumers, must apply for a license, commonly known as a
BitLicense, from the NYSDFS and must comply with anti-money laundering, cyber
security, consumer protection, and financial and reporting requirements, among
others. As an alternative to a BitLicense, a firm can apply for a charter to
become a limited purpose trust company under New York law qualified to engage in
certain digital asset business activities. Other states have considered or
approved digital asset business activity statutes or rules, passing, for
example, regulations or guidance indicating that certain digital asset business
activities constitute money transmission requiring licensure. The regulation of
digital asset activity under state money transmission laws varies
substantially.
The inconsistency in
applying money transmitting licensure requirements to certain businesses may
make it more difficult for these businesses to provide services, which may
affect consumer adoption of SOL and its price. In an attempt to address these
issues, the Uniform Law Commission passed a model law in July 2017, the Uniform
Regulation of Virtual Currency Businesses Act, which has many similarities to
the
BitLicense and features a
multistate reciprocity licensure feature, wherein a business licensed in one
state could apply for accelerated licensure procedures in other states. It is
still unclear, however, how many states, if any, will adopt some or all of the
model legislation.
The transparency of blockchains has in the past
facilitated investigations by law enforcement agencies. However, certain
privacy-enhancing features have been, or are expected to be, introduced to a
number of digital asset networks, and these features may provide law enforcement
agencies with less visibility into transaction histories. If the Solana network
was to adopt any of these privacy-enhancing features, these features may provide
law enforcement agencies with less visibility into transaction-level data. For
example, “privacy pools,” zero knowledge proofs, and other technologies that
could enhance privacy have been discussed by participants in the Solana network,
Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, released a report in
October 2017 noting the increased use of privacy-enhancing digital assets like
Zcash and Monero in criminal activity on the internet. In August 2022, OFAC
banned all U.S. citizens from using Tornado Cash, a digital asset protocol
designed to obfuscate blockchain transactions, by adding certain Ethereum wallet
addresses associated with the protocol to its Specially Designated Nationals
list. On October 19, 2023, FinCEN published a proposed rulemaking to apply the
authorities in Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act to impose requirements on
financial institutions that engage in convertible virtual currency (“CVC”)
transactions with CVC mixers. The proposed rule, if adopted, would require
covered financial institutions to report to FinCEN any CVC transactions they
process that involves CVC mixing within or involving a jurisdiction outside the
United States. The term “CVC mixing” covers more than just transactions that
involve CVC mixers like Tornado Cash, and seemingly could cover a broader range
of conduct involving technologies, services, or methods that have the effect of
obfuscating the source, destination, or amount of a CVC transaction, whether or
not the obfuscation was intentional. If the rule were to be adopted as proposed
and if the Solana network were to be deemed to or were to adopt features which
come within the rule’s ambit, it could cause covered financial institutions -
such as many virtual currency exchanges, or the Trust’s service providers, such
as the Prime Broker or Cash Custodian - to reduce support for or cease offering
services for Solana or to the Trust, which could impair the utility of Solana,
the value of the Shares and the Trust’s ability to operate in compliance with
new laws and regulations. Although no regulatory action has been taken to treat
privacy-enhancing digital assets differently, this may change in the
future.
In addition, a
determination that SOL is a security under U.S. or foreign law could adversely
affect an investment in the Shares. See “—Future regulations may require the
Trust and the Sponsor to become registered, which may cause the Trust to
liquidate.”
As
an owner of Shares, you will not have the rights normally associated with
ownership of other types of shares.
Shares are not entitled to
the same rights as shares issued by a corporation. By acquiring Shares, you are
not acquiring the right to elect directors, to receive dividends, to vote on
most matters regarding the issuer of the Shares or to take other actions
normally associated with the ownership of shares.
The
Sponsor and the Trustee may agree to amend the Trust Agreement without the
consent of the Shareholders.
The Sponsor and the
Trustee may agree to amend the Trust Agreement without Shareholder consent. The
Sponsor shall determine the content and manner of delivery of any notice of any
Trust Agreement amendment. Such notice may be provided on the Trust’s website,
in a prospectus supplement, through a current report on Form 8-K and/or in the
Trust’s annual or quarterly reports. If an amendment to the Trust Agreement
imposes new fees and charges or increases existing fees or charges, including
the Sponsor Fee (except for taxes and other governmental charges, registration
fees or other such expenses), or prejudices a
substantial existing right
of Shareholders, it will become effective for outstanding Shares 30 days after
notice of such amendment is given to registered owners. Shareholders that are
not registered owners (which most Shareholders will not be) may not receive
specific notice of a fee increase other than through an amendment to the
Prospectus. Moreover, at the time an amendment becomes effective, by continuing
to hold Shares, Shareholders are deemed to consent and agree to the amendment
and to be bound by the Trust Agreement as amended without specific agreement to
such increase (other than through the “negative consent” procedure described
above).
Shareholders
do not have the protections associated with ownership of Shares in an investment
company registered under the 1940 Act or the protections afforded by the
CEA.
The Trust is not an
investment company subject to the 1940 Act, and the Sponsor believes that the
Trust is not required to register under such act. Accordingly, investors do not
have the protections afforded by that statute, which is designed to ensure that
registered funds are acting in their investors’ best interests, minimize
conflicts of interest and provide for the impartial oversight of investment
companies. For example, registered investment companies subject to the 1940 Act
must have a board of directors, a certain minimum percentage of whom must be
independent (generally, at least a majority). Further, registered investment
companies’ advisory and sub-advisory contracts must be annually reapproved by a
majority of (1) the entire board of directors and (2) the independent directors.
Additionally, such registered investment companies are subject to prohibitions
and restrictions on transactions with their affiliates and required to maintain
fund assets with special types of custodians (generally, banks or
broker-dealers). Moreover, such registered investment companies are subject to
significant limits on the use of leverage, as well as limits on the form of
capital structure and the types of securities a registered fund can issue. In
addition, under Section 36(b) of the 1940 Act, investment advisers to registered
investment companies have an express fiduciary duty with respect to their
receipt of compensation for services.
The Trust will not hold or
trade in commodity interests regulated by the CEA, as administered by the CFTC.
Furthermore, the Sponsor believes that the Trust is not a commodity pool for
purposes of the CEA, and that neither the Sponsor nor the Trustee is subject to
regulation by the CFTC as a commodity pool operator or a commodity trading
advisor in connection with the operation of the Trust. Consequently,
Shareholders will not have the regulatory protections provided to investors in
CEA-regulated instruments or commodity pools.
The
exclusive jurisdiction for certain types of actions and proceedings and waiver
of trial by jury clauses set forth in the Trust Agreement may have the effect of
limiting a Shareholder’s rights to bring legal action against the Trust and
could limit a purchaser’s ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for
disputes with the Trust.
The Trust Agreement
provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware or, if such court
does not have subject matter jurisdiction, any other courts located in Delaware
will be the exclusive jurisdiction for any claims, suits, actions or
proceedings, provided that (i) the forum selection provisions do not apply to
suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any
other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction and (ii)
the federal district courts of the United States of America shall be the
exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action
arising under any federal securities law. By purchasing Shares in the Trust,
Shareholders waive certain claims that the courts of the State of Delaware and
any other courts located in Delaware is an inconvenient venue or is otherwise
inappropriate. As such, Shareholder could be required to litigate a matter
relating to the Trust in a Delaware court, even if that court may otherwise be
inconvenient for the Shareholder.
The Trust Agreement also
provides that each Shareholder waives the right to trial by jury in any such
claim, suit, action or proceeding. If a lawsuit is brought against the Trust, it
may be heard only by a judge or justice
of the applicable trial
court, which would be conducted according to different civil procedures and may
result in different outcomes than a trial by jury would have, including results
that could be less favorable to the plaintiffs in any such action. No
Shareholder can waive compliance with respect to the U.S. federal securities
laws and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.
If a Shareholder opposed a
jury trial demand based on the waiver, the applicable court would determine
whether the waiver was enforceable based on the facts and circumstances of that
case in accordance with applicable federal laws. To the Trust’s knowledge, the
enforceability of a contractual pre-dispute jury trial waiver in connection with
claims arising under the U.S. federal securities laws has not been finally
adjudicated by the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the Trust believes that a
contractual jury trial waiver provision is generally enforceable, including
under the laws of the State of Delaware, which govern the Trust Agreement. By
purchasing Shares in the Trust, Shareholders waive a right to a trial by jury
which may limit a Shareholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum
that it finds favorable for disputes with the Trust.
As
the Sponsor and its management have relatively limited history of operating
investment vehicles like the Trust, their experience may be inadequate or
unsuitable to manage the Trust.
While the Sponsor, its
management team, and the Execution Agent operate other investment vehicles that,
like the Trust, specifically invest in digital assets, including a spot bitcoin
exchange-traded product and a spot ether exchange-traded product, they have a
relatively limited track record. This limited experience poses several potential
risks to the effective management and operation of the Trust. Digital assets,
such as SOL, are known for their high volatility, unique technical, legal and
regulatory challenges, and rapidly evolving market dynamics. The Sponsor’s
relatively limited experience in this specific field may not fully equip them to
navigate these complexities effectively, but by managing its own products and
through its relationships with the Execution Agent and the Solana Custodian, the
Sponsor has amassed significant knowledge regarding SOL and the digital asset
markets in general.
The past performance of
the Sponsor’s or the Execution Agent’s management in other investment vehicles
are no indication of their ability to manage an investment vehicle such as the
Trust. The unique nature of digital assets makes past performance an unreliable
indicator of future success in this area. The digital asset market is
technology-driven and requires a deep understanding of the underlying blockchain
technology and security considerations. The Sponsor’s limited experience may not
fully encompass the technical expertise required to mitigate risks such as cyber
threats, technological failures, or operational errors related to digital asset
transactions and custody.
Should the experience of
the Sponsor, its management team, or the Execution Agent prove inadequate or
unsuitable for managing a digital asset-based investment vehicle like the Trust,
it could result in suboptimal decision-making, increased operational risks, and
potential legal or regulatory non-compliance. These factors could adversely
affect the Trust’s operations, leading to potential losses for investors or a
decrease in the Trust’s overall value.
Furthermore, the Sponsor
and the Execution Agent are currently engaged in the management of other
investment vehicles which could divert their attention and resources. If the
Sponsor were to experience difficulties in the management of such other
investment vehicles that damaged the reputation of either the Sponsor or the
Execution Agent, it could have an adverse impact on their ability to continue to
serve as Sponsor or Execution Agent, respectively, for the Trust.
Future
regulations may require the Trust and the Sponsor to become registered, which
may cause the Trust to liquidate.
Current and future federal
or state legislation, SEC and CFTC rulemaking, and other regulatory developments
may impact the manner in which SOL is treated for classification and clearing
purposes. In particular, certain transactions in SOL may be deemed to be
commodity interests under the CEA or SOL may be classified by the SEC as a
“security” under U.S. federal securities laws. The Sponsor and the Trust cannot
be certain as to how future regulatory developments will impact the treatment of
SOL (including staking) under the law. In the face of such developments, the
required registrations and compliance steps may result in extraordinary,
nonrecurring expenses to the Trust. If the Sponsor decides to dissolve the Trust
in response to the changed regulatory circumstances, the Trust may be dissolved
or liquidated at a time that is disadvantageous to Shareholders.
To the extent that SOL is deemed to fall within
the definition of a “commodity interest” under the CEA, the Trust and the
Sponsor may be subject to additional regulation under the CEA and CFTC
regulations. The Sponsor may be required to register as a commodity pool
operator or commodity trading adviser with the CFTC and become a member of the
National Futures Association (“NFA”) and may be subject to additional regulatory
requirements with respect to the Trust, including disclosure and reporting
requirements. These additional requirements may result in extraordinary,
recurring and/or nonrecurring expenses of the Trust, thereby materially and
adversely impacting the Shares. If the Sponsor determines it is not feasible or
desirable to comply with such additional regulatory and registration
requirements, the Sponsor will likely terminate the Trust. Any such termination
could result in the liquidation of the Trust’s SOL at a time that is
disadvantageous to Shareholders.
To the extent that SOL is deemed to fall within
the definition of a security under U.S. federal securities laws, the Trust, the
Trustee and the Sponsor may be subject to additional requirements under the
Investment Company Act and the Sponsor may be required to register as an
investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act. Such additional
registration may result in extraordinary, recurring and/or non‑recurring
expenses of the Trust, thereby materially and adversely impacting the Shares. If
the Sponsor determines it is not feasible or desirable to comply with such
additional regulatory and registration requirements, the Sponsor will likely
terminate the Trust. Any such termination could result in the liquidation of the
Trust’s SOL at a time that is disadvantageous to Shareholders.
The SEC has not asserted
regulatory authority over SOL or trading or ownership of SOL and has not
expressed the view that SOL should be classified or treated as a security for
purposes of U.S. federal securities laws. In March 2018, it was reported that
the SEC was examining as many as 100 investment funds with strategies focused on
digital assets. The reported focus of the examinations is on the accuracy of
risk disclosures to investors in these funds, digital asset pricing practices,
and compliance with rules meant to prevent the theft of investor funds, as well
as on information gathering so that the SEC can better understand new
technologies and investment products. It has further been reported that some of
these funds have received subpoenas from the SEC’s Enforcement Division. The SEC
also has determined that certain digital assets are securities under the U.S.
securities laws. In these determinations, the SEC reasoned that the unregistered
offer and sale of digital assets can, in certain circumstances, including ICOs,
be considered illegal public offering of securities. A significant amount of
funding for digital asset startups has come from ICOs, and if ICOs are halted or
face obstacles, or companies that rely on them face legal action or
investigation, it could have a negative impact on the value of digital assets,
including SOL. However, the SEC’s “Crypto Task Force” has indicated that it
is re-examining how digital assets are considered “securities” under
the federal securities laws and the timeline and outcome of such action is
uncertain at this time. Finally, the SEC’s Division of Examinations
(“Examinations”) has stated that digital assets are an examination priority for
2025. In particular, Examinations has expressed its intent to focus its
examination on the offer,
sale, recommendation, advice, trading, and other activities involving crypto
assets that are offered and sold as securities or related products, such as spot
bitcoin or ether ETPs.
The SEC has recently proposed amendments to the
custody rules under Rule 206(4)-2 of the Investment Advisers Act. The proposed
rule changes would amend the definition of a “qualified custodian” under Rule
206(4)-2(d)(6) and expand the current custody rule in 206(4)-2 to cover all
digital assets, including SOL, and related advisory activities. If enacted as
proposed, these rules would likely impose additional regulatory requirements
with respect to the custody and storage of digital assets, including SOL. The
Sponsor is studying the impact that such amendments may have on the Trust and
its arrangements with the Solana Custodian and Prime Broker. It is possible that
such amendments, if adopted, could prevent the Solana Custodian and Prime Broker
from serving as service providers to the Trust, or require potentially
significant modifications to existing arrangements under the Custody Agreement
and Prime Broker Agreement, which could cause the Trust to bear potentially
significant increased costs. If the Sponsor is unable to make such modifications
or appoint successor service providers to fill the roles that the Solana
Custodian and Prime Broker currently play, the Trust’s operations (including in
relation to creations and redemptions of Creation Units and the holding of SOL)
could be negatively affected, the Trust could be terminated (including at a time
that is potentially disadvantageous to Shareholders), and the value of the
Shares or an investment in the Trust could be affected. Further, the proposed
amendments could have a severe negative impact on the price of SOL and therefore
the value of the Shares if enacted, by, among other things, making it more
difficult for investors to gain access to SOL, or causing certain holders of SOL
to sell their holdings.
SOL and other digital
assets currently face an uncertain regulatory landscape in many foreign
jurisdictions such as the European Union, China, the United Kingdom, Australia,
Russia, Israel, Poland, India and Canada. Cybersecurity attacks by state actors,
particularly for the purpose of evading international economic sanctions, are
likely to attract additional regulatory scrutiny to the acquisition, ownership,
sale and use of digital assets, including SOL. Moreover, other events, such as
the interruption in telecommunications or internet services, cyber-related
terrorist acts, civil disturbances, war or other catastrophes, could also
negatively affect the digital asset economy in one or more jurisdictions. For
example, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 led to volatility in
digital asset prices, with an initial steep decline followed by a sharp rebound
in prices. The effect of any existing regulation or future regulatory change or
other events on the Trust or SOL is impossible to predict, but such change could
be substantial and adverse to the Trust and the value of the Shares. Various
foreign jurisdictions have adopted, and may continue to adopt in the near
future, laws, regulations or directives that affect SOL, particularly with
respect to SOL trading platforms and service providers that fall within such
jurisdictions’ regulatory scope. Laws, regulations or directives in foreign
countries may conflict with those of the United States and may negatively impact
the acceptance of SOL by users, merchants and service providers outside the
United States and may therefore impede the growth or sustainability of the SOL
economy in these jurisdictions as well as in the United States and elsewhere, or
otherwise negatively affect the value of SOL, and, in turn, the value of the
Shares.
If
regulatory changes or interpretations of an Authorized Participant’s, the
Trust’s or the Sponsor’s activities require the regulation of an Authorized
Participant, the Trust or the Sponsor as a money service business under the
regulations promulgated by FinCEN under the authority of the U.S. Bank Secrecy
Act or as a money transmitter or digital asset business under state regimes for
the licensing of such businesses, an Authorized Participant, the Trust or the
Sponsor may be required to register and comply with such regulations, which
could result in extraordinary, recurring and/or nonrecurring expenses to the
Authorized Participant, Trust or Sponsor or increased commissions for the
Authorized Participant’s clients, thereby reducing the liquidity of the
Shares.
To the extent that the
activities of any Authorized Participant, the Trust or the Sponsor cause it to
be deemed a “money services business” under the regulations promulgated by
FinCEN under the authority of the U.S.
Bank Secrecy Act, such
Authorized Participant, the Trust or the Sponsor may be required to comply with
FinCEN regulations, including those that would mandate the Authorized
Participant to implement anti-money laundering programs, make certain reports to
FinCEN and maintain certain records. Similarly, the activities of an Authorized
Participant, the Trust or the Sponsor may require it to be licensed as a money
transmitter or as a digital asset business, such as under NYSDFS’ BitLicense
regulation.
Such additional regulatory
obligations may cause an Authorized Participant, the Trust or the Sponsor to
incur extraordinary expenses. If an Authorized Participant, the Trust or the
Sponsor decide to seek the required licenses, there is no guarantee that they
will timely receive them. In addition, to the extent an Authorized Participant,
the Trust, or the Sponsor is found to have operated without appropriate state or
federal licenses, it may be subject to investigation, administrative or court
proceedings, and civil or criminal monetary fines and penalties, all of which
could harm the reputation of the Authorized Participant, the Trust or the
Sponsor and affect the value of the Shares. Furthermore, an Authorized
Participant, the Trust, or the Sponsor may not be able to timely acquire
necessary state licenses or be capable of complying with certain federal or
state regulatory obligations applicable to money services businesses, money
transmitters, and businesses engaged in digital asset activity. An Authorized
Participant may also instead decide to terminate its role as Authorized
Participant of the Trust, or the Sponsor may decide to dissolve the Trust.
Dissolution by an Authorized Participant may decrease the liquidity of the
Shares, which may adversely affect the value of the Shares, and any dissolution
of the Trust in response to the changed regulatory circumstances may be at a
time that is disadvantageous to the Shareholders.
The
tax treatment of SOL, SOL staking and transactions involving SOL for U.S.
federal income tax purpose is uncertain and may change, which could adversely
affect the value of an investment in the Shares.
Current IRS guidance indicates that SOL should
be treated and taxed as property, not as currency, for U.S. federal income tax
purposes, and that transactions involving the payment of SOL in return for goods
and services should be treated as barter transactions. Such exchanges result in
gain or loss measured by the difference between the price at which SOL is
exchanged and the taxpayer’s basis in the SOL. However, because SOL is a new
technological innovation, because IRS guidance has taken the form of
administrative pronouncements that may be modified without prior notice and
comment, and because there is as yet little case law on the subject, the U.S.
federal income tax treatment of an investment in SOL or in transactions relating
to investments in SOL may change from that described in this Prospectus,
possibly with retroactive effect. Any such change in the U.S. federal income tax
treatment of SOL may have a negative effect on prices of SOL and may adversely
affect the value of the Shares. In this regard, the IRS has indicated that it
has made it a priority to issue additional guidance related to the taxation of
virtual currency transactions, such as transactions involving SOL. In addition,
the IRS and U.S. Department of Treasury have proposed regulations regarding the
tax information reporting rules for cryptocurrency transactions. In November of
2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and IRS issued a revenue procedure
(the "Staking Revenue Procedure") setting forth a safe harbor under which the
Trust will engage in certain staking activities in reliance on the Staking
Revenue Procedure. The Trust seeks to comply with the safe harbor and to
maintain its status as an investment trust and as a grantor trust for U.S.
federal income tax purposes. The requirements under the safe harbor and under
existing law are subject to interpretation and there can be no certainty that
regulatory authorities will agree with the Trust's interpretation and
application of the guidance or that the Trust will satisfy the Staking Revenue
Procedure's safe harbor conditions. Whether any future guidance will adversely
affect the U.S. federal income tax treatment of an investment in SOL or in
transactions relating to investments in SOL is unknown. Moreover, future
developments that may arise with respect to digital currencies may increase the
uncertainty with respect to the treatment of digital currencies for U.S. federal
income tax purposes.
Investors
should consult their personal tax advisors before making any decision to
purchase the Shares of the Trust. Additionally, the tax considerations contained
herein are in summary form and may not be used as the sole basis for the
decision to invest in the Shares from a tax perspective, since the individual
situation of each investor must also be taken into account. Accordingly, the
considerations regarding taxation contained herein should not be used as any
sort of material information or tax advice nor are they in any way to be
construed as a representation or warranty with respect to specific tax
consequences. The tax treatment of SOL, staking and transactions involving SOL
for state and local tax purposes is uncertain and may change, which could
adversely affect the value of an investment in the Shares.
Because SOL is a new
technological innovation, the tax treatment of SOL for state and local tax
purposes, including without limitation state and local income and sales and use
taxes, is not settled. A number of states have issued their own guidance
regarding the tax treatment of certain digital assets for state income or sales
and use tax purposes. It is uncertain what guidance, if any, on the treatment of
SOL for state and local tax purposes may be issued in the future. Such treatment
may have negative consequences for investors in digital assets, including the
potential imposition of a greater tax burden on investors in digital assets or
the potential imposition of greater costs on the acquisition and disposition of
digital assets. In either case, such different tax treatment may potentially
have a negative effect on the price of SOL and a negative impact on the NAV of
the Trust.
A
hard “fork” or airdrop of the Solana blockchain could result in Shareholders
incurring a tax liability.
If a hard fork, airdrop or
similar event occurs in the Solana blockchain, the Sponsor will instruct the
Trust to immediately and irrevocably disclaim all rights to the IR Assets so
created. Although the Sponsor will instruct the Trust to immediately and
irrevocably disclaim all rights to the IR Assets so created, it is possible that
Shareholders may still incur a federal income tax liability as a result of a
hard fork, airdrop or similar event if, for example, the IRS does not recognize
such a disclaimer. Under current guidance, the IRS has held that a hard fork
resulting in the receipt of new units of cryptocurrency is a taxable event
giving rise to ordinary income. While the IRS has not addressed all situations
in which airdrops occur, it is clear from the reasoning of the IRS’s current
guidance that it generally would treat an airdrop as a taxable event giving rise
to ordinary income.
Current IRS guidance does
not address whether income recognized by a non-U.S. person as a result of a hard
fork, airdrop or similar occurrence could be subject to the 30% withholding tax
imposed on U.S. source “fixed or determinable annual or periodical gains,
profits and income” (“FDAP”). A Non-U.S. Shareholder (as defined under “U.S.
Federal Income Tax Consequences” below) should assume that, in the absence of
guidance, a withholding agent (including the Sponsor) is likely to withhold 30%
of any such income recognized by a Non-U.S. Shareholder in respect of its
Shares, including by deducting such withheld amounts from proceeds that such
Non-U.S. Shareholder would otherwise be entitled to receive in connection with a
distribution of the new digital asset. There is also the possibility that
the Trust may be required to remit a withholding payment to the U.S. Treasury
even if there are no distributions to such Non-U.S. Shareholder in the taxable
year in which the hard fork, airdrop or similar event occurs.
The receipt, distribution
and/or sale of the new digital asset may cause Shareholders to incur a United
States federal, state, and/or local, or non-U.S. tax liability. Any tax
liability could adversely impact an investment in the Shares and may require
Shareholders to prepare and file tax returns they would not otherwise be
required to prepare and file.
A
U.S. Tax-Exempt Shareholder may recognize “unrelated business taxable income” as
a consequence of an investment in the Shares.
Under current IRS
guidance, hard forks, airdrops, staking rewards and similar events with respect
to digital assets will under certain circumstances be treated as taxable events
giving rise to ordinary income. In the absence of guidance to the contrary, it
is possible that any such income recognized by a U.S. Tax-Exempt Shareholder (as
defined under “U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences” below) would constitute
“unrelated business taxable income” (“UBTI”). U.S. Tax-Exempt Shareholders
should consult their tax advisers regarding whether such Shareholders may
recognize UBTI as a consequence of an investment in the Shares.
Intellectual
property rights claims may adversely affect the operation of the Solana
network.
Third parties may assert
intellectual property claims relating to the holding and transfer of SOL and its
source code. Regardless of the merit of any intellectual property or other legal
action, any threatened action that reduces confidence in long-term viability or
the ability of end-users to hold and transfer SOL may adversely affect an
investment in the Trust. Additionally, a meritorious intellectual property claim
could prevent the Trust and other end-users from accessing, holding or
transferring SOL, which could force the liquidation of the Trust’s holdings of
SOL. As a result, an intellectual property claim against the Trust or other
large SOL participants could adversely affect an investment in the Shares.
Risks
Related to the Markets and Service Ecosystems for SOL
The
venues through which cryptocurrencies (including SOL) trade are relatively new
and may be more exposed to operational problems or failure than trading
platforms for other assets, which could adversely affect the value of SOL and
therefore adversely affect an investment in the Shares.
Platforms through which
SOL trades are relatively new. SOL trading platforms are generally subject to
different regulatory requirements than venues for trading more traditional
assets, and may be subject to limited or no regulation, especially outside the
U.S. Furthermore, many such trading platforms, including exchanges and
over-the-counter trading venues, do not provide the public with significant
information regarding their ownership structure, management teams, corporate
practices or regulatory compliance, and may take the position that they are not
subject to laws and regulations that would apply to a national securities
exchange or designated contract market in the United States, or may, as a
practical matter, be beyond the ambit of U.S. regulators. SOL trading platforms
may impose daily, weekly, monthly or customer-specific transaction or
distribution limits or suspend withdrawals entirely, rendering the exchange of
SOL for fiat currency difficult or impossible. Participation in SOL trading on
some venues requires users to take on credit risk by transferring digital assets
from a personal account to a third party’s account, which could discourage
trading on those platforms.
Over the past several
years, a number of cryptocurrency trading platforms have been closed due to
fraud, failure or security breaches. In many of these instances, the customers
of such platforms were not compensated or made whole for the partial or complete
losses of their account balances in such exchanges. While smaller trading
platforms are less likely to have the infrastructure and capitalization that
make larger trading platforms more stable, larger trading venues are more likely
to be appealing targets for hackers and “malware” (i.e., software used or
programmed by attackers to disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive
information or gain access to private computer systems) and their shortcomings
or ultimate failures are more likely to have contagion effects on the digital
asset ecosystem. For example, in 2014, the largest bitcoin trading platform at
the time, Mt. Gox, filed for bankruptcy in Japan amid reports the trading
platform lost up to 850,000 bitcoin, valued then at over $450 million.
As another example, in
January 2015, Bitstamp announced that approximately 19,000 bitcoin had been
stolen from its operational or “hot” wallets. In August 2016, it was reported
that almost 120,000 bitcoin worth around $78 million were stolen from Bitfinex,
a large bitcoin trading platform. The value of bitcoin immediately decreased by
more than 10% following reports of the theft at Bitfinex. In addition, in
December 2017, Yapian, the operator of Seoul-based digital asset trading
platform Youbit, suspended digital asset trading and filed for bankruptcy
following a hack that resulted in a loss of 17% of Yapian’s assets. Following
the hack, Youbit users were allowed to withdraw approximately 75% of the digital
assets in their trading platform accounts, with any potential further
distributions to be made following Yapian’s pending bankruptcy proceedings. In
January 2018, Japan-based exchange Coincheck reported that over $500 million
worth of the digital asset NEM had been lost due to hacking attacks, resulting
in significant decreases in the prices of bitcoin, ether and other digital
assets as the market grew increasingly concerned about the security of digital
assets. Following South Korean-based trading platform Coinrail’s announcement in
early June 2018 about a hacking incident, the price of bitcoin and ether dropped
more than 10%. In September 2018, Japan-based trading platform Zaif announced
that approximately $60 million worth of digital assets, was stolen due to
hacking activities. In May 2019, one of the world’s largest digital asset
trading platforms, Binance, was hacked, resulting in losses of approximately $40
million. Further, in November 2022, FTX Trading Ltd. (“FTX”), one of the largest
digital asset trading platforms by volume at the time, halted customer
withdrawals amid rumors of the company’s liquidity issues and likely insolvency,
which were subsequently corroborated by its CEO. Shortly thereafter, FTX’s CEO
resigned and FTX and many of its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in the United
States, while other affiliates have entered insolvency, liquidation, or similar
proceedings around the globe, following which the U.S. Department of Justice
brought criminal fraud and other charges, and the SEC and CFTC brought civil
securities and commodities fraud charges, against certain of FTX’s and its
affiliates’ senior executives, including its former CEO. Around the same time,
there were reports that approximately $300-600 million of digital assets were
removed from FTX and the full facts remain unknown, including whether such
removal was the result of a hack, theft, insider activity, or other improper
behavior. Various claims and issues related to FTX have not yet been
resolved.
More recently, in February
2025, the crypto exchange Bybit was hacked, resulting in the theft of over $1.5
billion of ether. SOL trading platforms that are regulated typically must comply
with minimum net worth, cybersecurity, and anti-money laundering requirements,
but are not typically required to protect customers to the same extent as
regulated securities exchanges or futures exchanges.
Some academics and market
observers have put forth evidence to support claims that manipulative trading
activity has occurred on certain digital asset trading platforms. For example,
in a 2017 paper titled “Price Manipulation in the Bitcoin Ecosystem” sponsored
by the Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University, a group
of researchers used publicly available trading data, as well as leaked
transaction data from a 2014 Mt. Gox security breach, to identify and analyze
the impact of “suspicious trading activity” on Mt. Gox between February and
November 2013, which, according to the authors, caused the price of bitcoin to
increase from around $150 to more than $1,000 over a two-month period. In August
2017, it was reported that a trader or group of traders nicknamed “Spoofy” was
placing large orders on Bitfinex without actually executing them, presumably in
order to influence other investors into buying or selling by creating a false
appearance that greater demand existed in the market. In December 2017, an
anonymous blogger (publishing under the pseudonym Bitfinex’d) cited publicly
available trading data to support his or her claim that a trading bot nicknamed
“Picasso” was pursuing a paint-the-tape-style manipulation strategy by buying
and selling bitcoin and bitcoin cash between affiliated accounts in order to
create the appearance of substantial trading activity and thereby influence the
price of such assets.
Anonymity
and illicit financing risk.
Although transaction
details of peer-to-peer transactions are recorded on the Solana blockchain, a
buyer or seller of digital assets on a peer-to-peer basis directly on the Solana
network may never know to whom the public key belongs or the true identity of
the party with whom it is transacting. Public key addresses are randomized
sequences of alphanumeric characters that, standing alone, do not provide
sufficient information to identify users. In addition, certain technologies may
obscure the origin or chain of custody of digital assets. The opaque nature of
the market poses asset verification challenges for market participants,
regulators and auditors and gives rise to an increased risk of manipulation and
fraud, including the potential for Ponzi schemes, bucket shops and pump and dump
schemes. Digital assets have in the past been used to facilitate illicit
activities. If a digital asset was used to facilitate illicit activities,
businesses that facilitate transactions in such digital assets could be at
increased risk of potential criminal or civil lawsuits, or of having banking or
other services cut off, and such digital asset could be removed from digital
asset trading platforms. Any of the aforementioned occurrences could adversely
affect the price of the relevant digital asset, the attractiveness of the
respective blockchain network and an investment in the Shares. While the Trust’s
SOL transactions are expected to be effected by the Execution Agent
over-the-counter with known counterparties, if the Trust or the Sponsor were to
transact with a sanctioned entity, the Trust or the Sponsor would be at risk of
potential criminal or civil lawsuits or liability.
The Trust takes measures
with the objective of reducing illicit financing risks in connection with the
Trust’s activities. However, illicit financing risks are present in the digital
asset markets, including markets for SOL. There can be no assurance that the
measures employed by the Trust will prove successful in reducing illicit
financing risks, and the Trust is subject to the complex illicit financing risks
and vulnerabilities present in the digital asset markets. If such risks
eventuate, the Trust or the Sponsor or their affiliates could face civil or
criminal liability, fines, penalties, or other punishments, be subject to
investigation, have their assets frozen, lose access to banking services or
services provided by other service providers, or suffer disruptions to their
operations, any of which could negatively affect the Trust’s ability to operate
or cause losses in value of the Shares.
Furthermore, Authorized
Participants, as broker-dealers, and the Execution Agent, Prime Broker and
Solana Custodian, as entities licensed to conduct virtual currency business
activity by the New York Department of Financial Services and a limited purpose
trust company subject to New York Banking Law, respectively, are “financial
institutions” subject to the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, as amended (“BSA”), and U.S.
economic sanctions laws. The Trust will only accept SOL in connection with
creation and redemption requests from Solana Counterparties who have represented
to the Trust or the Execution Agent that they have implemented compliance
programs that are designed to ensure compliance with applicable sanctions and
anti-money laundering laws. In addition, with respect to all SOL delivered to
the Trust by Solana Counterparties in connection with creation requests, the
Solana Counterparties must represent to the Trust or the Execution Agent that it
will form a reasonable belief (i) as to the identities of, and conduct necessary
diligence with respect to, any counterparties from whom the Solana Counterparty
obtains SOL being transferred and (ii) that such SOL being transferred by the
Solana Counterparty to the Trust were not derived from, or associated with,
unlawful or criminal activity.
The Sponsor, the Execution
Agent and the Trust have adopted and implemented policies and procedures that
are designed to ensure that they do not violate applicable AML and sanctions
laws and regulations and to comply with any applicable KYC laws and regulations.
Each of the Sponsor, the Execution Agent and the Trust will only interact with
known third party service providers with respect to whom it has engaged in a due
diligence process including a thorough KYC process, such as the Authorized
Participants and the Solana Custodian. Authorized Participants, as
broker-dealers, and the Solana Custodian, as a limited purpose trust company
subject to New York Banking Law, are subject to the BSA and U.S. economic
sanctions laws.
The Solana Custodian has
adopted and implemented an anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance
program that provides protections intended to ensure that the Sponsor and the
Trust do not transact with a sanctioned party. Notably, the Solana Custodian
performs Know-Your-Transaction (“KYT”) screening using blockchain analytics to
identify, detect, and mitigate the risk of transacting with a sanctioned or
other unlawful actor. Pursuant to the Solana Custodian’s KYT program, any SOL
that is delivered to the Trust’s custody account will undergo screening to
ensure that the origins of that SOL are not illicit.
There is no guarantee that
such procedures will always be effective. If the Authorized Participants, the
Execution Agent, the Solana Custodian or the Prime Broker were to have
inadequate policies, procedures and controls for complying with applicable
anti-money laundering and applicable sanctions laws or the Trust’s diligence is
ineffective, violations of such laws could result, which could result in
regulatory liability for the Trust, the Sponsor, the Trustee or their affiliates
under such laws, including governmental fines, penalties, and other punishments,
as well as potential liability to or cessation of services by the Solana
Custodian. Any of the foregoing could result in losses to the Shareholders or
negatively affect the Trust’s ability to operate.
Spot
Solana markets may be exposed to fraud and market manipulation.
The blockchain infrastructure
could be used by certain market participants to exploit arbitrage opportunities
through schemes such as front-running, spoofing, pump-and-dump and fraud across
different systems, platforms or geographic locations. As a result of reduced
oversight, these schemes may be more prevalent in digital asset markets than in
the general market for financial products.
The SEC has identified
possible sources of fraud and manipulation in the digital asset market
generally, including, among others (1) “wash trading”; (2) persons with a
dominant position in digital asset manipulating the digital asset’s pricing; (3)
hacking of the digital asset’s peer-to-peer network and trading platforms; (4)
malicious control of the digital asset network; (5) trading based on material,
non-public information (for example, plans of market participants to
significantly increase or decrease their holdings in digital assets, new sources
of demand for digital asset, etc.) or based on the dissemination of false and
misleading information; (6) manipulative activity involving purported
“stablecoins,” including Tether; and (7) fraud and manipulation at digital asset
trading platforms.
Over the past several years,
a number of digital asset spot markets have been closed or faced issues due to
fraud. In many of these instances, the customers of such digital asset spot
markets were not compensated or made whole for the partial or complete losses of
their account balances in such digital asset trading platforms.
For example, in 2019, there
were reports claiming that 80.95% of bitcoin trading volume on digital asset
trading platforms was false or noneconomic in nature, with specific focus on
unregulated trading platforms located outside of the United States. Such reports
alleged that certain overseas trading platforms have displayed suspicious
trading activity suggestive of a variety of manipulative or fraudulent
practices.
The potential consequences of
a spot market’s failure or failure to prevent market manipulation could
adversely affect the value of the Shares. Any market abuse, and a loss of
investor confidence in digital assets may adversely impact pricing trends in
digital assets markets broadly, as well as an investment in Shares of the
Trust.
Spot
SOL markets may be exposed to wash trading.
Spot markets on which SOL
trades may be susceptible to wash trading. Wash trading occurs when offsetting
trades are entered into for other than bona fide reasons, such as the desire to
inflate reported trading volumes. Wash trading may be motivated by non-economic
reasons, such as a desire for increased visibility on popular websites that
monitor markets for digital assets so as to improve their attractiveness to
investors who look for maximum liquidity, or it may be motivated by the ability
to attract listing fees from token issuers who seek the most liquid and
high-volume trading platforms on which to list their coins. Results of wash
trading may include unexpected obstacles to trade and erroneous investment
decisions based on false information.
Even in the United States,
and even on regulated venues there have been allegations of wash trading. Any
actual or perceived false trading in the digital asset trading platform market,
and any other fraudulent or manipulative acts and practices, could adversely
affect the value of SOL and/or negatively affect the market perception of
SOL.
To the extent that wash
trading either occurs or appears to occur in spot markets on which SOL trades,
investors may develop negative perceptions about SOL and the digital assets
industry more broadly, which could adversely impact the price SOL and,
therefore, the price of Shares. Wash trading also may place more legitimate
digital asset trading platforms at a relative competitive disadvantage.
Spot
SOL markets may be exposed to front-running.
Spot markets on which SOL
trades may be susceptible to “front-running,” which refers to the process when
someone uses technology or market advantage to get prior knowledge of upcoming
transactions. Front-running is a frequent activity on centralized as well as
decentralized trading platforms. By using bots functioning on a
millisecond-scale timeframe, bad actors are able to take advantage of the
forthcoming price movement and make economic gains at the cost of those who had
introduced these transactions. The objective of a front runner is to buy a group
of tokens at a low price and later sell them at a higher price while
simultaneously exiting the position. Front-running happens via manipulations of
gas prices or timestamps, also known as slow matching. To extent that
front-running occurs, it may result in investor frustration and concerns as to
the price integrity of digital asset trading platforms and digital assets more
generally.
Political
or economic crises may motivate large-scale sales of SOL, which could result in
a reduction in the prices of SOL and adversely affect an investment in the
Shares.
As an alternative to fiat
currencies that are backed by central governments, SOL is subject to supply and
demand forces based upon the desirability of an alternative, decentralized means
of buying and selling goods and services, and it is unclear how such supply and
demand will be impacted by geopolitical events. Nevertheless, political or
economic crises may motivate large-scale acquisitions or sales of SOL, either
globally or locally. Large-scale sales of SOL would result in a reduction in its
price and adversely affect an investment in the Shares.
Validators
may suffer losses due to staking, or staking may prove unattractive to
validators, which could make the Solana network less attractive.
Validation on the Solana
network requires SOL to be transferred into
smart contracts on the underlying blockchain networks not under the Trust’s or
anyone else’s control. If the Solana network source code or protocol fail to behave as
expected, suffer cybersecurity attacks or hacks, experience security issues, or
encounter other problems, such assets may be irretrievably lost. The Solana
network imposes three types
of sanctions for validator
misbehavior or inactivity, which would result in a portion of their staked SOL
being destroyed or “burned”: penalties, slashing and inactivity leaks. A
validator may face penalties if it fails to take certain actions, such as
providing a timely attestation to a block proposed by another validator. Under
this scenario, a validator’s staked SOL could be burned in an amount equal to
the reward to which it would have been entitled for performing the actions. A
more severe sanction (i.e., “slashing”) is imposed if a validator commits
malicious acts related to the proposal or attestation of blocks with invalid
transactions. Slashing can result in the validator having a portion of its
staked SOL immediately confiscated, withdrawn or burned by the network,
resulting in losses to them. After this initial slashing, the validator is
queued for forceful removal from the Solana network’s validator “pool,” and more
of the validator’s stake is burned over a period of approximately 36 days with
the exact amount of SOL burned and time period determined by the network
regardless of whether the validator makes any further slashable errors, at which
point the validator is automatically removed from the validator pool. To date,
no slashing penalty has been assessed on the Solana network. Staked SOL may also
be burned through a process known as an “inactivity leak,” which is triggered if
the Solana network has gone too long without finalizing a new block. For a new
block to be successfully added to the blockchain, validators that account for at
least two-thirds of all staked SOL must agree on the validity of a proposed
block. This means that if validators representing more than one-third of the
total staked SOL are offline, no new blocks can be finalized. To prevent this,
an inactivity leak causes the SOL staked by the inactive validators to gradually
“bleed away” until these inactive validators represent less than one-third of
the total stake, thereby allowing the remaining active validators to finalize
proposed blocks. This provides a further incentive for validators to remain
online and continue performing validation activities. Within the post-Merge
Solana network, as part of the “activating” and “exiting” processes of staking,
staked SOL will be inaccessible for a variable period of time determined by a
range of factors, including network congestion, resulting in potential
inaccessibility during those periods. “Activation” is the funding of a validator
to be included in the active set, thereby allowing the validator to participate
in the Solana network’s proof-of-stake consensus protocol. “Exit” is the request
to exit from the active set and no longer participate in the Solana network’s
proof-of-stake consensus protocol. As part of these “activating” and “exiting”
processes of staking on the Solana network, any staked SOL will be inaccessible
for a period of time. The duration of activating and exiting periods are
dependent on a range of factors, including network conditions. Un-staking
generally takes up to three days to complete on the Solana network, however,
depending on demand, un-staking can take between hours, days or weeks to
complete. Furthermore, the Solana network requires the payment of base fees and
the practice of paying tips is common, and such fees can become significant as
the amount and complexity of the transaction grows, depending on the degree of
network congestion and the price of SOL. Any cybersecurity attacks, security
issues, hacks, penalties, slashing events, or other problems could damage
validators’ willingness to participate in validation, discourage existing and
future validators from serving as such, and adversely impact the Solana
network’s adoption or the price of SOL. Any disruption of validation on the
Solana network could interfere with network operations and cause the Solana
network to be less attractive to users and application developers than competing
blockchain networks, which could cause the price of SOL to decrease. The limited
liquidity during the “activation” or “exiting” processes could dissuade
potential validators from participating, which could interfere with network
operations or security and cause the Solana network to be less attractive to
users and application developers than competing blockchain networks, which could
cause the price of SOL to decrease.
Ownership
of SOL is pseudonymous, and the supply of accessible SOL is unknown. Entities
with substantial holdings in SOL may engage in large-scale sales or
distributions, either on nonmarket terms or in the ordinary course, which could
result in a reduction in the price of SOL and adversely affect an investment in
the Shares.
There is no registry
showing which individuals or entities own SOL or the quantity of SOL that is
owned by any particular person or entity. It is possible, and in fact,
reasonably likely, that a small group of early SOL adopters hold a significant
proportion of the SOL that has been created to date. There are no
regulations in place that
would prevent a large holder of SOL from selling SOL it holds. To the extent
such large holders of SOL engage in large-scale sales or distributions, either
on nonmarket terms or in the ordinary course, it could result in a reduction in
the price of SOL and adversely affect an investment in the Shares.
A
temporary or permanent blockchain “fork” could adversely affect an investment in
the Shares.
The Solana network
operates using open-source protocols, meaning that any user can download the
software, modify it and then propose that the users and validators of SOL adopt
the modification. When a modification is introduced and a substantial majority
of users and validators consent to the modification, the change is implemented
and the network remains uninterrupted. However, if less than a substantial
majority of users and validators consent to the proposed modification, and the
modification is not compatible with the software prior to its modification, the
consequence would be what is known as a “hard fork” of the Solana network, with
one group running the pre modified software and the other running the modified
software. The effect of such a fork would be the existence of two versions of
SOL running in parallel on separate networks using separate blockchain ledgers,
yet lacking interchangeability. A forthcoming “hard fork” called “Alpenglow” was
announced by developers of the Solana network in May of 2025 and is expected to
reduce transaction finality time and enhance network security. Alpenglow and
other future updates could be improperly implemented or not implemented at all,
potentially creating vulnerabilities, outages and disruptions in the Solana
network, which would impact the price of SOL and the Shares.
Furthermore, a hard fork
can introduce new security risks. For example, when Ethereum and Ethereum
Classic split in July 2016, replay attacks, in which transactions from one
network were rebroadcast to nefarious effect on the other network, plagued
trading platforms through at least October 2016. A trading platform announced in
July 2016 that it had lost 40,000 ether tokens from the Ethereum Classic
network, which was worth about $100,000 at that time, as a result of replay
attacks. Another possible result of a hard fork is an inherent decrease in the
level of security. After a hard fork, it may become easier for an individual
validator or validator pool to exceed 50% of the processing power of the Solana
network, thereby making the network more susceptible to attack.
A fork could also be
introduced by an unintentional, unanticipated software flaw in the multiple
versions of otherwise compatible software users run. Such a fork could adversely
affect SOL’s viability. It is possible, however, that a substantial number of
users and validators could adopt an incompatible version of SOL while resisting
community-led efforts to merge the two chains. This would result in a permanent
fork, as in the case of Ethereum and Classic Ethereum Classic, as detailed
above.
A fork could also be
introduced by an unintentional, unanticipated software flaw in the multiple
versions of otherwise compatible software users run. Such a fork could adversely
affect SOL’s viability. It is possible, however, that a substantial number of
validators could adopt an incompatible version of SOL while resisting
community-led efforts to merge the two chains. This would result in a permanent
fork, as in the case of Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, as detailed above.
As another example of the
effects of hard forks on digital assets, on September 15th, 2022, the Ethereum
network successfully completed its Merge, moving from a Proof-of-Work (“PoW”)
model to a Proof-of-Stake (“PoS”) model. Ethereum PoW miners who disagreed with
the new consensus mechanism forked the network, which resulted in the
EthereumPoW network (“ETHW”). ETHW was driven by a small but vocal group of
miners who wished to hold onto revenue as Ethereum switched to PoS. The vast
majority of token holder votes preferred the new PoS consensus method. There was
no material impact on the Ethereum network as a result of the fork. All ether
holders were airdropped ETHW tokens as a result of the hard fork.
However, not all liquidity
providers were able to trade the new token and the ETHW token almost immediately
lost most of its value.
In the event of a hard
fork of the Solana network, the Sponsor will instruct the Trust to immediately
and irrevocably disclaim all rights to the ether, cash or other assets or rights
received as a result of a hard fork or airdrop in respect of SOL (“IR Assets”)
so created. As a result, shareholders will not receive the benefits of any hard
fork or airdrop. SOL is the only digital asset that will be held by the Trust.
In the event the Trust seeks to change its treatment of Incidental Rights or IR
Assets, an application would need to be filed with the SEC by the Exchange
seeking approval to amend its listing rules.
In the event of a fork,
the Sponsor will, as permitted by the terms of the Trust Agreement, determine
which network it believes is generally accepted as the Solana network and should
therefore be considered the appropriate network, and the associated asset as
SOL, for the Trust’s purposes. If the Trust modifies its policy on forks and
airdrops, notice to Shareholders will be provided on the Trust’s website, in a
prospectus supplement, through a current report on Form 8-K and/or in the
Trust’s annual or quarterly reports.
The
SEC has approved generic listing standards for commodity-based trust shares and
may approve other applications under Rule 19b-4 of the Exchange Act to list
competing digital asset backed investment vehicles as exchange-traded products,
which could reduce demand for, and the price of, Solana and adversely impact the
value of the Shares.
To date the SEC has
approved applications under Rule 19b-4 of the Exchange Act to list spot digital
asset exchange-traded products which hold Bitcoin and Ether as well as generic
listing standards for commodity-based trust shares holding digital assets. To
the extent competing digital asset exchange-traded products, other than those
which hold SOL, come to represent a significant proportion of the demand for
digital assets generally, demand for, and the price of, SOL could be reduced.
Such reduced demand could in turn negatively affect the value of the Shares of
the Trust. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that the Trust will be able to
achieve its intended competitive positioning, which could adversely affect the
performance of the Trust and the value of the Shares.
Risks
Related to the Trust and the Shares.
Several
factors may affect the Trust’s ability to achieve its investment objective on a
consistent basis.
There is no guarantee that
the Trust will meet its investment objective. Factors that may affect the
Trust’s ability to meet its investment objective include:
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• |
the development and maintenance of an active trading market for
Shares; |
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• |
the continued participation of Authorized
Participants; |
|
• |
the ability of Authorized Participants to obtain and dispose of SOL
in an efficient manner to effectuate creation and redemption
orders; |
|
• |
the liquidity of the SOL market and the Trust's staking
activities; |
|
• |
the functioning of the markets on which SOL
trades; |
|
• |
the compliance of the Trust’s portfolio holdings and staking
activities with investment restrictions, policies or regulatory or tax law
requirements; and |
|
• |
the ability of the Trust to achieve or maintain an economically
viable size. |
The
Trust is subject to risks due to its concentration of investments in a single
asset.
Unlike other funds that
may invest in diversified assets, the Trust’s investment strategy is
concentrated in a single asset: SOL. This concentration maximizes the degree of
the Trust’s exposure to a variety of market risks associated with SOL, including
the rise or fall in its price, sometimes rapidly or unexpectedly. By
concentrating its investment strategy solely in SOL, any losses suffered as a
result of a decrease in the value of SOL can be expected to reduce the value of
an interest in the Trust and will not be offset by other gains if the Trust were
to invest in underlying assets that were diversified.
Shareholders
will not receive the benefits of any forks or “airdrops.”
The Solana blockchain may
be subject to forks or airdrops that create new digital assets. See “Solana and
the Solana Market—Solana and the Solana network—Forks and Airdrops.”
Shareholders may not receive the benefits of any forks, the Trust may not
choose, or be able, to participate in an airdrop, and the timing of receiving
any benefits from a fork, airdrop or similar event is uncertain. The Sponsor
refers to the right to receive any such benefit as an “Incidental Right” and any
such virtual currency acquired through an Incidental Right as “IR Assets.” If a
hard fork, airdrop or similar event occurs in the Solana blockchain, the Sponsor
will instruct the Trust to immediately and irrevocably disclaim all rights to
the IR Assets so created. SOL is the only digital asset that will be held by the
Trust. In the event the Trust seeks to change its treatment of Incidental Rights
or IR Assets, an application would need to be filed with the SEC by the Exchange
seeking approval to amend its listing rules.
Although the Sponsor is
under no obligation to do so, an inability to realize the economic benefit of a
hard fork or airdrop could adversely affect the value of the Shares. Investors
who prefer to have a greater degree of control over events such as forks,
airdrops, and similar events, and any assets made available in connection with
each, should consider investing in SOL directly rather than purchasing
Shares.
The
Trust is subject to management and operational risks from its Sponsor and
service providers.
The Trust is subject to
management risk because it relies on the Sponsor’s ability to achieve its
investment objective. Shareholders will have very limited voting rights, which
will limit their ability to influence matters such as amendment of the Trust
Agreement, change in the Trust’s basic investment policy, dissolution of the
Trust, or the sale or distribution of the Trust’s assets.
The Trust also is subject
to the risk of loss as a result of other services provided by the Sponsor and
other service providers, including benchmark, custody, administrative,
accounting, tax, legal, custody, transfer agency and other services. Operational
risk includes the possibility of loss caused by inadequate procedures and
controls, human error and cyber attacks, disruptions and failures affecting, or
by, a service provider. In addition, the Sponsor may be required to indemnify
its officers, directors and key employees with respect to their activities on
behalf of the Trust and other accounts, if the need for indemnification arises.
This potential indemnification could cause the Sponsor’s assets to decrease. If
the Sponsor’s sources of income are not sufficient to compensate for the
indemnification, it could cease operations, which could in turn result in Trust
losses and/or dissolution of the Trust.
In addition, the Trust’s
service providers, including the Solana Custodian, act in similar capacities for
a number of other digital asset ETPs. If those digital asset ETPs experience
operational challenges or regulatory problems that impact or implicate one or
more of the Trust’s service providers, the Trust’s operations may be adversely
impacted as a result. The Sponsor will monitor the services provided by the
Trust’s service providers to detect and identify any such potential issues with
the service providers.
The
Trust as well as the Sponsor and its service providers are vulnerable to the
effects of public crises, which may arise in the future, which may adversely
affect the performance of the Trust’s investment in SOL and your investment in
the Trust.
Pandemics and other public
health crises may cause a curtailment of business activities which may
potentially impact the ability of the Sponsor and its service providers to
operate. Such events also could adversely impact the Trust by causing operating
delays and disruptions, market disruption and shutdowns (including as a result
of government regulation and prevention measures). The COVID-19 pandemic, for
example, had substantive effects on social, economic and financial systems,
including significant uncertainty and volatility in the financial market.
The
Trust’s Prime Broker or Solana Custodian could become insolvent or become
subject to a receivership or bankruptcy proceeding, which may result in a loss
of or delay in access to Trust assets.
In the event of an
insolvency or bankruptcy of the Prime Broker (in the case of the Trading
Balance) or the Solana Custodian (in the case of the Vault Balance) in the
future, given that the contractual protections and legal rights of customers
with respect to digital assets held on their behalf by third parties are
relatively untested in a bankruptcy of an entity such as the Solana Custodian or
Prime Broker in the virtual currency industry, there is a risk that customers’
assets—including the Trust’s assets—may be considered the property of the
bankruptcy estate of the Prime Broker (in the case of the Trading Balance) or
the Solana Custodian (in the case of the Vault Balance), and customers—including
the Trust—may be at risk of being treated as general unsecured creditors of such
entities and subject to the risk of total loss or markdowns on value of such
assets.
The Solana Custody
Agreement contains an agreement by the parties to treat the SOL credited to the
Trust’s Vault Balance as financial assets under Article 8 of the New York
Uniform Commercial Code (“Article 8”), in addition to stating that the Solana
Custodian will serve as fiduciary and custodian on the Trust’s behalf. The
Solana Custodian’s parent, Coinbase Global, has stated in its most recent public
securities filings that in light of the inclusion in its custody agreements of
provisions relating to Article 8 it believes that a court would not treat
custodied digital assets as part of its general estate in the event the Solana
Custodian were to experience insolvency. However, due to the novelty of digital
asset custodial arrangements courts have not yet considered this type of
treatment for custodied digital assets and it is not possible to predict with
certainty how they would rule in such a scenario. If the Solana Custodian became
subject to insolvency proceedings and a court were to rule that the custodied
SOL were part of the Solana Custodian’s general estate and not the property of
the Trust, then the Trust would be treated as a general unsecured creditor in
the Solana Custodian’s insolvency proceedings and the Trust could be subject to
the loss of all or a significant portion of its assets. Moreover, in the event
of the bankruptcy of the Solana Custodian, an automatic stay could go into
effect and protracted litigation could be required in order to recover the
assets held with the Solana Custodian, all of which could significantly and
negatively impact the Trust’s operations and the value of the Shares.
There is a risk that the
Trading Balance, in which the Trust’s SOL and cash is held in omnibus accounts
by the Prime Broker (in the latter case, as described below in “Cybersecurity
Risk Related to Solana —Loss of a critical banking relationship for, or the
failure of a bank used by, the Execution Agent could adversely impact the
Trust’s ability to create or redeem Creation Baskets, or could cause losses to
the Trust.”), could be considered part of the Prime Broker’s bankruptcy estate
in the event of the Prime Broker’s bankruptcy. The Solana Custody Agreement
contains an Article 8 opt-in clause with respect to the Trust’s assets held in
the Trading Balance. The Prime Broker is not required to hold any of the SOL or
cash in the Trust’s Trading Balance in segregation. Within the Trading Balance,
the Solana Custody Agreement provides that the Trust does not have an
identifiable claim to any particular SOL (and cash). Instead, the Trust’s
Trading
Balance represents an
entitlement to a pro rata share of the SOL (and cash) the Prime Broker has
allocated to the omnibus wallets the Prime Broker holds, as well as the accounts
in the Prime Broker’s name that the Prime Broker maintains at Connected Trading
Venues (which are typically held on an omnibus, rather than segregated, basis).
If the Prime Broker suffers an insolvency event, there is a risk that the
Trust’s assets held in the Trading Balance could be considered part of the Prime
Broker’s bankruptcy estate and the Trust could be treated as a general unsecured
creditor of the Prime Broker, which could result in losses for the Trust and
Shareholders. Moreover, in the event of the bankruptcy of the Prime Broker, an
automatic stay could go into effect and protracted litigation could be required
in order to recover the assets held with the Prime Broker, all of which could
significantly and negatively impact the Trust’s operations and the value of the
Shares. There are no policies that would limit the amount of SOL that can be
held temporarily in the Trading Balance maintained by the Prime Broker.
The
Trust has entered into a written agreement with the Staking Provider, which
could harm the value of the Shares.
In seeking to achieve its
investment objective, the Trust will hold SOL and will seek to stake
substantially all of its SOL to earn staking rewards to the extent the Trust, in
the Sponsor’s sole discretion, can engage in staking without undue legal or
regulatory risk, including without jeopardizing its status as a grantor trust
for U.S. federal income tax purposes (the “Staking Condition”). The Sponsor has determined that
the Staking Condition has been satisfied. As of the date of this Prospectus, the
Sponsor intends to engage in staking on behalf of the Trust of substantially all
of the Trust's SOL, subject to an amount that it determines to invest in the
Liquidity Sleeve.
If the Trust engaging in
staking activities raised concerns about the safety or liquidity of the Trust's
SOL, the Trust may cease some or all of its staking activities. Staking on
the Solana network involves delegating of SOL to validators and carries risks
discussed further below. Staked SOL may be subject to community-determined
penalties for validator misbehavior, or slashing. If the Staking Provider causes
the Trust’s staked SOL to be subject to such slashing losses, the Trust could
suffer losses of the staked SOL. Additionally, the staking process includes
protocol-defined warm-up, activation and withdrawal periods, during which staked
SOL is temporarily locked and inaccessible. These phases affect when SOL begins
earning rewards, participates in consensus and becomes available for transfer or
redelegation.
Staking Provider will
stake the Trust’s SOL as the node operator and will operate a validator to stake
the Trust’s SOL. The Staking Provider will perform its staking services in
collaboration with the Solana Custodian, as the SOL will be staked directly from
the Trust’s SOL account with the Solana Custodian. The Trust will maintain
control of the SOL while it is staked because it will remain in the Trust’s
account with the Solana Custodian (i.e., it will be kept in a separate account
for which the Trust is the beneficial and record owner and will not be
commingled other parties' accounts with the Solana Custodian). The Trust will
maintain the power to unstake its SOL. Each Staking Provider will not have this
capability. Staking will be a passive activity for the Trust, as it will not
operate its staking program. The Trust’s role will be limited to evaluating and
contracting with one or more Staking Providers and instructing the Staking
Provider on when to stake and/or unstake the Trust’s SOL.
The Trust will receive a
portion of the staking rewards earned through its staking program in the form of
SOL. The Staking Provider and Sponsor are entitled to receive a fee for their
respective roles in facilitating the Trust's staking activities (collectively,
"Staking Expenses"). The Trust will pay Staking Expenses at a rate of 3% of the
gross staking rewards received by the Trust. The expenses of staking the Trust’s
SOL will be paid from the proceeds of the Trust's staking program and the Trust
will retain the remaining amount of the staking rewards. The staking rewards earned by the Trust
will accrue to the Trust’s account with the Solana Custodian and will generally
be staked in the same way as the Trust’s already staked SOL.
The
Trust’s risk management processes and policies may prove to not be adequate to
prevent any loss of the Trust’s SOL.
The Sponsor will continue
to monitor and evaluate the Trust’s risk management processes and policies and
believes that the current risk management processes and procedures are
reasonably designed and effective. The Sponsor believes that the security
procedures that the Sponsor and the Solana Custodian utilize, such as hardware
redundancy, segregation and offline data storage (i.e., the maintenance of data
on computers and/or storage media that is not directly connected to or
accessible from the internet and/or networked with other computers, also known
as “cold storage”) protocols are reasonably designed to safeguard the Trust’s
SOL from theft, loss, destruction or other issues relating to hackers and
technological attack. Despite the number of security procedures that the Sponsor
and Solana Custodian employ, it is impossible to guarantee the prevention of any
loss due to a security breach, software defect, act of God, pandemic or riot
that may be borne by the Trust. Notwithstanding the above, the Solana Custodian
is responsible for its own gross
negligence, willful
misconduct or bad faith. In the event that the Trust’s risk management processes
and policies prove to not be adequate to prevent any loss of the Trust’s SOL and
such loss is not covered by insurance or is otherwise recoverable, the value of
the Shares will decrease as a result and investors would experience a decrease
in the value of their investment.
The
Trust’s Policy for managing the liquidity risks of staking may not fully prevent
the Trust from experiencing liquidity challenges, especially in extreme or
stressed market conditions.
The Trust’s staking program involves the
temporary loss of the ability to transfer or otherwise dispose of the Trust’s
SOL. The Sponsor expects that under normal conditions, the Trust will generally
regain complete control over the Trust’s SOL in up to three days of instructing
the Solana Custodian to unstake or "exit" the Trust’s staked SOL positions.
However, there can be no guarantee that such process will result in the Trust
regaining complete control of its SOL in time to satisfy its current
obligations.
The Trust may reduce the amount of its SOL that
is staked as part of managing its liquidity. The Trust will not utilize
leverage, derivatives or similar instruments or transactions in seeking to meet
its investment objective; however, the Trust may utilize a short term credit
facility or an alternative liquidity arrangement for the purposes of obtaining
funds necessary to meet redemptions from the Trust. Accordingly, investors could
still experience delays or limitations on redemptions if the Trust is unable to
unstake the necessary amount of SOL in time to satisfy its current obligations.
The
development and commercialization of the Trust is subject to competitive
pressures and may be adversely affected by competition from competing products
and other investment vehicles focused on SOL or other digital assets.
The Trust and the Sponsor
face competition with respect to the creation of competing products. The
Sponsor’s competitors may have greater financial, technical and human resources
than the Sponsor. These competitors may also compete with the Sponsor in
recruiting and retaining qualified personnel. Smaller or early-stage companies
may also prove to be effective competitors, particularly through collaborative
arrangements with large and established companies. Accordingly, the Sponsor’s
competitors may commercialize a product involving SOL more rapidly, effectively
or for a lower fee than the Sponsor is able to, which could adversely affect the
Sponsor’s competitive position, the likelihood that the Trust will achieve
initial market acceptance and the Sponsor’s ability to generate meaningful
revenues from the Trust. For exchange-traded products similar to the Trust,
there have been significant “first-mover” advantages in terms of asset
gathering, trading volume and media coverage. In many cases, the first mover in
an asset class has been able to maintain these advantages for extended
periods.
Investors may invest in
SOL through means other than the Shares, including through direct investments in
SOL and other potential financial vehicles, possibly including securities backed
by or linked to SOL and digital asset financial vehicles similar to the Trust,
or SOL futures-based products. Market and financial conditions, and other
conditions beyond the Sponsor’s control, may make it more attractive to invest
in other financial vehicles or to invest in SOL directly, which could limit the
market for, and reduce the liquidity of, the Shares. In addition, to the extent
digital asset financial vehicles other than the Trust tracking the price of SOL
are formed and represent a significant proportion of the demand for SOL, large
purchases or redemptions of the securities of these digital asset financial
vehicles, or private funds holding SOL, could negatively affect the Benchmark,
the Trust’s SOL holdings, the price of the Shares, the net asset value of the
Trust and the NAV.
If the Trust fails to
achieve sufficient scale due to competition, the Sponsor may have difficulty
raising sufficient revenue to cover the costs associated with launching and
maintaining the Trust, and such
shortfalls could impact
the Sponsor’s ability to properly invest in robust ongoing operations and
controls of the Trust to minimize the risk of operating events, errors, or other
forms of losses to the Shareholders. In addition, the Trust may also fail to
attract adequate liquidity in the secondary market due to such competition,
resulting in a sub-standard number of Authorized Participants willing to make a
market in the Shares, which in turn could result in a significant premium or
discount in the Shares for extended periods and the Trust’s failure to reflect
the performance of the price of SOL.
In addition, the Trust
will compete with direct investments in SOL, SOL futures-based products, other
digital assets and other potential financial vehicles, possibly including
securities backed by or linked to digital assets and other investment vehicles
that focus on other digital assets. Market and financial conditions, and other
conditions beyond the Trust’s control, may make it more attractive to invest
directly or in other vehicles, which could adversely affect the performance of
the Trust.
The
value of the Shares may be influenced by a variety of factors unrelated to the
value of SOL.
The value of the Shares
may be influenced by a variety of factors unrelated to the price of SOL that may
have an adverse effect on the price of the Shares. These factors include:
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• |
The Trust could experience unanticipated problems or issues with
respect to the mechanics of the Trust’s operations and the trading of the
Shares, in particular due to the fact that the mechanisms and procedures
governing the creation and offering of the Shares and storage of SOL have
been developed specifically for this product; |
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• |
The Trust could experience difficulties in operating and maintaining
its technical infrastructure, including in connection with expansions or
updates to such infrastructure, which are likely to be complex and could
lead to unanticipated delays, unforeseen expenses and security
vulnerabilities; |
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• |
The Trust could experience unforeseen issues relating to the
performance and effectiveness of the security procedures, such as
algorithms, codes, passwords, multiple signature systems, encryption and
telephone call-backs, used to protect the Trust’s account with the Solana
Custodian, or the security procedures may not protect against all errors,
software flaws or other vulnerabilities in the Trust’s technical
infrastructure, which could result in theft, loss or damage of its assets;
or |
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• |
If the Solana network introduces privacy enhancing features in the
future, service providers may decide to terminate their relationships with
the Trust due to concerns that the introduction of privacy enhancing
features to the Solana network may increase the potential for SOL to be
used to facilitate crime, exposing such service providers to potential
reputational harm. |
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• |
Staking involves the risk of loss of the Trust's SOL, which would
adversely affect the value of the Shares. |
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• |
Liquidity challenges related to unstaking the Trust's SOL to meet
redemption requests could result in certain liquidity risks to the Trust,
including possible delays in the satisfaction of redemption
requests. |
|
• |
The uncertain legal and regulatory environment regarding staking,
especially as it relates to the U.S. federal income tax consequences of
staking in a grantor trust structure. |
|
• |
There is a possibility that the Trust's staking activities could
result in potential tax liabilities for beneficial owners of Shares
without receiving corresponding distributions from the Trust in connection
with the Trust's staking activities, even though the Trust will liquidate
staking rewards to pay quarterly distributions to Shareholders.
|
Any of these factors could
affect the value of the Shares, either directly or indirectly through their
effect on the Trust’s assets.
The
NAV may not always correspond to the market price of the Shares.
The NAV of the Trust may
not always correspond to the market price of its Shares. Shareholders should be
aware that the public trading price per Share may be different from the NAV for
a number of reasons, including price volatility, trading activity, normal
trading hours for the Trust, the calculation methodology of the NAV, demand or
supply for Shares of the Trust in excess of an Authorized Participant’s ability
to create or redeem Shares and/or the closing of SOL trading platforms due to
fraud, failure, security breaches or otherwise, and the fact that supply and
demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares are related,
but not identical, to the supply and demand forces influencing the market price
of SOL. Additionally, SOL is traded on trading platform markets and
over-the-counter 24-hours a day and seven days a week, and the value of the
Shares may therefore change on days and at times when an investor is not able to
buy or sell Shares.
The Trust and the Sponsor
believe that slippage in trading (i.e., the difference between the expected
price and the price at which the trade is executed) is not necessarily more
pronounced in the trading of digital assets as compared to other asset classes
or in the trading of SOL as compared to other digital assets. To monitor the
trading of SOL and other digital assets, the Execution Agent requests quotes
from liquidity providers to trade SOL or other digital asset as a spread off a
corresponding index. While trading slippage is not expected to have a material
impact on the Trust over the long term, trading slippage may from time to time
be material on a given day. The Trust does not currently intend to take specific
steps to limit the impact of trading slippage.
An Authorized Participant
may be able to create or redeem a Creation Basket at a discount or a premium to
the public trading price per Share. To the extent creations or redemptions take
place in kind, the Trust’s operations will therefore not be directly impacted by
any discount or premium in the market price of its Shares.
Shareholders
may be adversely affected by an overstatement or understatement of the NAV
calculation of the Trust due to the valuation methodology employed on the date
of the NAV calculation.
If the Benchmark is not
available or the Sponsor determines, in its sole discretion, that the Benchmark
should not be used, the Trust’s SOL investments may be valued using techniques
other than reliance on the price established by the Benchmark. The value
established by using the Benchmark may be different from what would be produced
through the use of another methodology. SOL valued using techniques other than
those employed by the Benchmark, including SOL investments that are “fair
valued,” may differ from the value established by the Benchmark.
Benchmark
correlation risk.
The Trust expects to
outperform the Benchmark before taking its expenses and liabilities into account
due to its plans to receive SOL staking rewards but may not achieve the desired
correlation to the Benchmark and thus may not achieve its investment objective.
The difference in performance between the Trust and the Benchmark may be due to
factors such as fees, transaction costs, redemptions of, and subscriptions for,
Shares, differences in the timing of the addition or removal of constituent
trading platforms underlying the Benchmark, staking rewards earned by the Trust,
pricing differences or the cost to the Trust of complying with various new or
existing regulatory requirements.
To
the extent the Trust makes use of cash creations and redemptions, it may
adversely affect arbitrage transactions by Authorized Participants intended to
keep the price of the Shares closely linked to the price of SOL and, as a
result, the price of the Shares may fall or otherwise diverge from NAV.
The use of cash creations
and redemptions, as opposed to in-kind creations and redemptions, could cause
delays in trade execution due to potential operational issues arising from
implementing a cash creation and redemption model, which involves greater
operational steps (and therefore execution risk) than the creation and
redemption model. Such delays could cause the execution price associated with
such trades to materially deviate from the Benchmark price used to determine the
NAV. Even though the Authorized Participant is responsible for the dollar cost
of such difference in prices, Authorized Participants could default on their
obligations to the Trust, or such potential risks and costs could lead to
Authorized Participants, who would otherwise be willing to purchase or redeem
Baskets to take advantage of any arbitrage opportunity arising from
discrepancies between the price of the Shares and the price of the underlying
SOL, to elect to not participate in the Trust’s Share creation and redemption
processes. This may adversely affect the arbitrage mechanism intended to keep
the price of the Shares closely linked to the price of SOL, and as a result, the
price of the Shares may fall or otherwise diverge from NAV. If the arbitrage
mechanism is not effective, purchases or sales of Shares on the secondary market
could occur at a premium or discount to NAV, which could harm Shareholders by
causing them buy Shares at a price higher than the value of the underlying SOL
held by the Trust or sell Shares at a price lower than the value of the
underlying SOL held by the Trust, causing Shareholders to suffer losses.
Further, the Trust may not be able to successfully implement in-kind creation
and redemption transactions, which could put the Trust at a disadvantage
compared to other digital asset ETPs that are able to implement in-kind
creations and redemptions.
SOL
buying and selling activity associated with the creation and redemption of
Creation Baskets, or withdrawal from participation by an Authorized Participant,
may adversely affect an investment in the Shares of the Trust.
The Trust’s or the
Execution Agent’s purchase of SOL in connection with Creation Basket purchase
orders may cause the price of SOL to increase, which will result in higher
prices for the Shares. Increases in SOL prices may also occur as a result of SOL
purchases by other market participants who attempt to benefit from an increase
in the market price of SOL when Creation Baskets are issued. The market price of
SOL may therefore decline immediately after Creation Baskets are issued.
Selling activity
associated with sales of SOL by the Trust or the Execution Agent in connection
with redemption orders may decrease the SOL prices, which will result in lower
prices for the Shares. Decreases in SOL prices may also occur as a result of
selling activity by other market participants.
In addition to the effect
that purchases and sales of SOL by the Trust or the Execution Agent may have on
the price of SOL, sales and purchases of SOL by similar investment vehicles (if
developed) could impact the price of SOL. If the price of SOL declines, the
trading price of the Shares will generally also decline.
The Trust’s and the Authorized Participants’
ability to buy or sell SOL may be adversely affected by limited trading volume,
lack of a market maker, or legal restrictions. It is also possible that a SOL
spot market or governmental authority may suspend or restrict trading in SOL
altogether. Therefore, it may not always be possible to execute a buy or sell
order at the desired price or to liquidate an open position due to market
conditions on spot markets, regulatory issues affecting SOL or other issues
affecting counterparties. SOL is a relatively new asset with a very
limited trading history. Therefore, the markets for SOL may be less liquid
and more volatile than other markets for more established products.
Authorized
Participant risk.
The Trust has a limited
number of financial institutions that may act as Authorized Participants and
engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Trust, and none
of those Authorized Participants is obligated to engage in creation and/or
redemption transactions. In the event that one or more Authorized Participants
that have substantial interests in the Trust’s Shares exit the business or are
unable to proceed with participation in the purchase (creation) or sale
(redemption) of the Trust’s Shares, and no other Authorized Participant is able
to step forward to create or redeem Creation Baskets, this may result in a
significantly diminished trading market for the Shares, and the Shares may be
more likely to trade at a premium or discount to the Trust’s NAV and to face
trading halts and/or delisting. Further, the Trust’s Authorized Participants may
act as authorized participants for a number of other digital asset ETPs. If
those digital asset ETPs experience operational challenges or regulatory
problems that impact or implicate one or more of the Trust’s Authorized
Participants, the Trust may be adversely impacted. In addition, if one or more
of the Trust’s Authorized Participants discontinue serving as an Authorized
Participant with respect to the Trust but not to other digital asset ETPs, the
liquidity of Shares and the value of an investment in the Shares may be
adversely affected. Finally, in periods of heightened SOL price volatility, the
Authorized Participants may not be able to effectively make markets in several
impacted digital asset ETPs at once, which could lead to larger bid-ask spreads
or Share price premiums and discounts. The Sponsor will monitor the activity and
operations of the Trust’s Authorized Participants to identify any such potential
issues.
The
inability of Authorized Participants to hedge their SOL exposure may adversely
affect the liquidity of Shares and the value of an investment in the
Shares.
Authorized Participants
will generally want to hedge their exposure in connection with Creation Basket
creation and redemption orders. To the extent Authorized Participants are unable
to hedge their exposure due to market conditions (e.g., insufficient SOL
liquidity in the market, inability to locate an appropriate hedge counterparty,
extreme volatility in the price of SOL, etc.), such conditions may make it
difficult to create or redeem Creation Baskets or cause them to not create or
redeem Creation Baskets. In addition, the hedging mechanisms employed by
Authorized Participants to hedge their exposure to SOL may not function as
intended, which may make it more difficult for them to enter into such
transactions. Such events could negatively impact the market price of the Trust
and the spread at which the Trust trades on the open market.
The
market infrastructure of the SOL spot market could result in the absence of
active Authorized Participants able to support the trading activity of the
Trust.
SOL is extremely volatile,
and concerns exist about the stability and reliability of many trading platforms
where SOL trades. In a highly volatile market, or if one or more trading
platforms supporting the SOL market face an issue, it could be extremely
challenging for any Authorized Participants to provide continuous liquidity in
the Shares. There can be no guarantee that the Sponsor will be able to find an
Authorized Participant to actively and continuously support the Trust.
SOL
spot trading platforms are not subject to the same regulatory oversight as
traditional equity exchanges, which could negatively impact the ability of
Authorized Participants to implement arbitrage mechanisms.
The trading for spot SOL
occurs on multiple domestic and foreign trading platforms that have various
levels and types of regulation, but are not regulated in the same manner as
traditional stock and bond trading platforms. If these trading platforms do not
operate smoothly or face technical, security or regulatory issues, that could
impact the ability of Authorized Participants to make markets in the Shares. In
such an event, trading in the Shares could occur at a material premium or
discount to the NAV.
In addition, trading on
these trading platforms may be halted or disrupted due to regulatory actions,
operational problems at the trading platforms or third parties, cybersecurity
incidents or acts of fraud or misconduct, among others. In the event a trading
platform experiences such a disruption, the Trust may be impacted and the value
of the Shares may decline. Further, the price and availability of SOL on these
trading platforms may differ, and if the Trust transacts at one trading platform
at a time where the price and/or availability of SOL is materially worse than
that of another trading platform, the value of Shares may be impacted.
Operational problems or failures by SOL trading platforms and fluctuations in
SOL prices may reduce confidence in these platforms or in SOL generally, which
could adversely affect the price of SOL and therefore adversely affect an
investment in the Shares.
Only
Authorized Participants may transact in Creation Baskets.
The Trust will process all
creations and redemptions of Shares in transactions with financial firms that
are authorized to do so (known as “Authorized Participants”). Shareholders that
are not Authorized Participants or who are unable to transact in Creation
Baskets through Authorized Participants may only purchase or sell their Shares
in secondary trading markets, and the conditions associated with trading in
secondary markets may adversely affect Shareholders’ investment in the Shares.
Although shares of the Trust are listed for trading on the Exchange, there can
be no assurance that an active trading market for such shares will develop or be
maintained. Secondary market trading in Shares may be halted by the Exchange
because of market conditions or for other reasons. Shares of the Trust, similar
to shares of other issuers listed on a stock exchange, may be sold short and are
therefore subject to the risk of increased volatility and price decreases
associated with being sold short. Shares trade on the Exchange at prices at,
above or below the most recent NAV. The NAV is calculated at the end of each
Business Day and fluctuates with changes in the market value of the Trust’s SOL.
The trading price of the Shares fluctuates continuously throughout trading hours
based on both market supply of and demand for Shares and the underlying value of
the Trust’s SOL or the Trust’s NAV. As a result, the trading prices of Shares
may deviate significantly from NAV during periods of market volatility. Any of
these factors, among others, may lead to the Shares trading at a premium or
discount to NAV. While the creation/redemption feature is designed to make it
more likely that Shares normally will trade on the Exchange at prices close to
the next calculated NAV, market prices are not expected to correlate exactly
with the Trust’s NAV due to timing reasons, supply and demand imbalances and
other factors. In addition, disruptions to creations and redemptions, including
disruptions at Authorized Participants, or other market participants, and during
periods of significant market volatility, may result in trading prices for
Shares that differ significantly from its NAV. Authorized Participants may be
less willing to create or redeem Shares if there is a lack of an active market
for such Shares or its underlying investments, which may contribute to the
Shares trading at a premium or discount to NAV. Buying or selling Shares on the
Exchange involves two types of costs that apply to all securities transactions.
When buying or selling Shares through a broker, Shareholders will likely incur a
brokerage commission and other charges. In addition, Shareholders may incur the
cost of the “spread”; that is, the difference between what investors are willing
to pay for Shares (the “bid” price) and the price at which they are willing to
sell Shares (the “ask” price). The spread, which varies over time for Shares
based on trading volume and market liquidity, is generally narrower if the Trust
has more trading volume and market liquidity and wider if the Trust has less
trading volume and market liquidity. In addition, increased market volatility
may cause wider spreads. There may also be regulatory and other charges that are
incurred as a result of trading activity. Because of the costs inherent in
buying or selling Shares, frequent trading may detract significantly from
investment results and an investment in Shares may not be advisable for
investors who anticipate regularly making small investments through a brokerage
account.
Solana
Counterparty risk.
There can be no guarantee
that the Execution Agent will be able to find Solana Counterparties to actively
and continuously provide SOL liquidity to the Trust. Because the Solana
Counterparties are not
contractually obligated to
provide SOL liquidity to the Trust, if the Trust is unable to find sufficient
sources of SOL liquidity, the Execution Agent may not be able to purchase or
sell SOL on behalf of the Trust at prices and at times that will enable the
Trust to track the Benchmark. If the Execution Agent is unable to transact in
SOL on the Trust’s behalf on a timely and cost-efficient basis, it could
adversely affect the price of SOL and therefore adversely affect an investment
in the Shares. To the extent that the unavailability of SOL liquidity results in
a diminished trading market for the Shares, the Shares may be more likely to
trade at a premium or discount to the Trust’s NAV and to face trading halts
and/or delisting. Further, if one or more Solana Counterparties or trading
platforms or venues supporting the SOL market are unwilling or unable to provide
liquidity to the Trust, it could be challenging for any Authorized Participants
to provide continuous liquidity in the Shares.
Shareholders
may be adversely affected by creation or redemption orders that are subject to
postponement, suspension or rejection under certain circumstances.
The Trust may, in its
discretion, suspend the right of creation or redemption or may postpone the
purchase or redemption settlement date, for (1) any period during which the
Exchange is closed other than customary weekend or holiday closings, or trading
on the Exchange is suspended or restricted, (2) any period during which an
emergency exists as a result of which the fulfillment of a purchase order or the
redemption distribution is not reasonably practicable, (3) such other period as
the Sponsor determines to be necessary for the protection of the Trust or its
Shareholders (for example, where acceptance of the total deposit required to
create each Creation Basket would have certain adverse tax consequences to the
Trust or its Shareholders), or (4) as agreed upon between the Sponsor and
Authorized Participant. An emergency could include situations where the Trust is
unable to transact in SOL or where the Trust is unable to value its SOL
holdings. Such a situation may arise when trading of SOL is suspended on one or
more of the digital asset trading platforms that are included in the Benchmark
(for example, as a result of a significant technical failure, power outage or
network error) or the Trust is unable to access the SOL in the Trust’s SOL
custody account at the Solana Custodian due to technical or operating issues at
the Trust or the Solana Custodian. Because the Trust’s SOL transactions are
expected to be effected by the Execution Agent over-the-counter, it is unlikely
that the Trust’s SOL transactions would be directly impacted by a trading halt
on one or more digital asset trading platforms. However, such disruptions may
have an effect on overall SOL liquidity or cause price spreads of SOL to
widen.
In addition, the Trust may
reject a redemption order if the order is not in proper form as described in the
authorized participant agreement by and among the Trust, the Sponsor and the
Authorized Participants (the “Authorized Participant Agreement”) or if the
fulfillment of the order might be unlawful. Any such postponement, suspension or
rejection could adversely affect a redeeming Authorized Participant. Suspension
of creation privileges may adversely impact how the Shares are traded and
arbitraged on the secondary market, which could cause them to trade at levels
materially different (premiums and discounts) from the fair value of their
underlying holdings.
Due
to the time involved in “exiting” the staking process, there is a risk that the
Trust could become unable to timely meet excessive redemption requests in
amounts that are greater than the portion of the Trust’s SOL that remains
unstaked, leading to temporary delays in settlement and, in extreme scenarios,
the temporary unavailability of the Trust’s redemption program. Moreover, any
staked SOL which must be unstaked in order to fulfill a redemption (to the
extent such redemption cannot be fulfilled utilizing the portion of the Trust's
SOL that has not been staked, or through another mechanism to manage liquidity
in connection with redemption orders) will be unstaked only after the redemption
request is approved by the Trust, the Sponsor executes an unstake or withdrawal
transaction through the Solana Custodian, and such transaction is processed by
the Solana network. The Staking Provider will not be able to transfer unstaked
SOL or staking rewards to another address on the Solana network. The Exchange on
which the Shares are listed may halt trading in the Trust’s Shares, which would
adversely impact a Shareholder’s ability to sell Shares.
The Trust’s Shares are
listed for trading on the Exchange under the ticker symbol QSOL. Trading in
Shares may be halted due to market conditions or, in light of the Exchange rules
and procedures, for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in
Shares inadvisable. In addition, trading is subject to trading halts caused by
extraordinary market volatility pursuant to “circuit breaker” rules that require
trading to be halted for a specified period based on a specified market decline.
Additionally, there can be no assurance that the requirements necessary to
maintain the listing of the Trust’s Shares will continue to be met or will
remain unchanged.
The
lack of active trading markets for the Shares of the Trust may result in losses
on Shareholders’ investments at the time of disposition of Shares.
Although Shares of the
Trust are expected to be publicly listed and traded on an exchange, there can be
no guarantee that an active trading market for the Trust will develop or be
maintained. If Shareholders need to sell their Shares at a time when no active
market for them exists, the price Shareholders receive for their Shares,
assuming that Shareholders are able to sell them, will likely be lower than the
price that Shareholders would receive if an active market did exist and,
accordingly, a Shareholder may suffer losses.
Shareholders
could incur a tax liability without an associated distribution of the
Trust.
In the normal course of
business, Shareholders could incur a taxable gain as a result of the sale of SOL
(including sales of SOL to pay the Sponsor Fee and other Trust expenses), which
gain does not correspond to a distribution to Shareholders (so-called “phantom
income”). Any tax liability could adversely impact an investment in the Shares
and may require Shareholders to prepare and file tax returns. In that event,
Shareholders may be subject to tax on any realized capital gain resulting from
their pro-rata share of the SOL sold by the Trust even though there is not a
corresponding distribution from the Trust, although the Sponsor intends to make
quarterly distributions, on behalf of the Trust, of staking rewards to
Shareholders. See “U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences—Taxation of U.S.
Shareholders” and “U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences—Taxation of the Trust.”
The
amount of SOL represented by the Shares will decline over time.
The amount of SOL
represented by the Shares will be reduced during the life of the Trust each time
the Trust accrues the Sponsor Fee, and to pay for any extraordinary expenses.
This dynamic will occur irrespective of whether the value of the Trust’s assets,
or the trading price of the Shares, rises or falls.
Each outstanding Share
represents a fractional, undivided interest in the SOL held by the Trust. The
Trust transfers SOL to pay for the Sponsor Fee, and to pay for any extraordinary
expenses, including, but not limited to, taxes and governmental charges, any
applicable brokerage commissions, financing fees, borrowing costs under a short
term credit facility or alternative liquidity arrangement, Solana network fees
and similar transaction fees, expenses and costs of any extraordinary services
performed by the Sponsor (or any other service provider) on behalf of the Trust
to protect the Trust or the interests of Shareholders (including, for example,
in connection with any fork of the Solana blockchain), any indemnification of
the Sponsor, Cash Custodian, Solana Custodian, Staking Provider, Administrator
or other agents, service providers or counterparties of the Trust and
extraordinary legal fees and expenses, including any legal fees and expenses
incurred in connection with litigation, regulatory enforcement or investigation
matters. Therefore, the amount of SOL represented by each Share will gradually
decline over time. This is also true with respect to Shares that are issued in
exchange for additional deposits of SOL or cash used to acquire SOL over time,
as the amount of SOL required to create Shares proportionally reflects the
amount of SOL represented by the Shares outstanding at the time of such Share
issuance. Assuming a constant SOL price, the trading price of the Shares is
expected to gradually decline relative to the price of SOL at the rate of the
Sponsor Fee and other expenses.
Any
errors or changes in calculations used to value the Trust’s SOL holdings and SOL
holdings per Share may have an adverse effect on the value of the Shares.
The value of Trust’s SOL
holdings is typically determined on a daily basis as of 4:00 p.m. ET on each
Business Day. This determination is made utilizing data from the operations of
the Trust, calculated as of 4:00 p.m. ET on such day. In the event that the
value of the Trust’s SOL holdings or SOL holdings per Share is incorrectly
calculated, the Sponsor and the Administrator will not be liable for any error
and such misreporting of valuation data could adversely affect the value of the
Shares.
The
value of the Shares will be adversely affected if the Trust is required to
indemnify the Sponsor, the Trustee, the Transfer Agent, the Solana Custodian,
Staking Provider or the Cash Custodian.
Under the Trust Agreement,
the Trustee and the Sponsor will have a right to be indemnified by the Trust for
certain liabilities or expenses that it incurs without gross negligence, bad
faith or willful misconduct on its part. The Trust has also agreed to indemnify
the Transfer Agent, Solana Custodian, Staking Provider and Cash Custodian under
their respective agreements with the Trust for certain liabilities or expenses
that such party incurs, subject to certain qualifications. Therefore, the
Trustee, Sponsor, Transfer Agent, the Solana Custodian, Staking Provider or the
Cash Custodian may require that the assets of the Trust be sold in order to
cover losses or liability suffered by it. Any sale of that kind would reduce the
SOL holdings of the Trust and the value of the Shares.
The
Sponsor and its affiliates are subject to conflicts of interest that could
adversely affect an investment in the Trust.
The Sponsor and its
affiliates and their respective officers, directors and employees and other
related parties engage in a broad spectrum of activities and may expand the
range of services that they provide over time. The Sponsor and its related
parties will generally not be restricted in the scope of their business or in
the performance of any such services (whether now offered or undertaken in the
future), even if such activities could give rise to conflicts of interest, and
whether or not such conflicts are described herein. In the ordinary course of
their business activities, the Sponsor and its related parties may engage in
activities where the interests of the Sponsor and its related parties or the
interests of their clients conflict with the interests of the Trust. Certain
employees of the Sponsor also have responsibilities relating to the business of
one or more related parties. These employees are not restricted in the amount of
time that may be allocated to the
business activities of the
Sponsor’s related parties, and the allocation of such employees’ time between
the Sponsor and its related parties may change over time.
The Sponsor and its
related parties are responsible for managing other accounts in addition to the
services that they provide to the Trust, including other accounts of the Sponsor
or its affiliates. Other accounts may include, without limitation, private or
SEC-registered funds, separately managed accounts, offshore funds or accounts,
or investments owned by the Sponsor or its affiliates. Management of other
accounts in addition to services provided to the Trust can present certain
conflicts of interest. The other accounts might have similar or different
investment objectives or strategies as the Trust, or otherwise hold, purchase or
sell investments that are eligible to be held, purchased or sold by the Trust,
or may take positions that are opposite in direction from those taken by the
Trust.
The Sponsor may devote
unequal time and attention to the management of different accounts. As a result,
the Sponsor may not be able to fulfill its obligations to the Trust as might be
the case if it were to devote substantially more attention to the management of
a single account. The effects of this potential conflict may be more pronounced
where accounts overseen by the Sponsor have different investment
strategies.
A conflict of interest
arises where the financial or other benefits available to the Sponsor or its
related parties differ among the accounts that it manages. Where the structure
of the Sponsor’s or its related party’s fee differs among accounts (such as
where certain accounts pay higher management fees or a performance or incentive
fee), the Sponsor might be motivated to help certain accounts over others. In
addition, the Sponsor might be motivated to favor accounts in which it has an
interest and/or its related parties have interests. Similarly, the desire to
maintain or raise assets under management or to enhance the Sponsor’s or its
related parties’ performance record or to derive other rewards, financial or
otherwise, could influence the Sponsor to give preferential treatment to those
accounts that could most significantly benefit the Sponsor.
The Trust’s service
providers (including its Solana Custodian, Administrator, auditor and legal
counsel) may provide services to other pooled investment vehicles with similar
investment strategies and objectives and, accordingly, may have conflicts of
interest. The Trust’s Sponsor and other service providers and their principals,
employees or affiliates may invest or trade in digital assets for their own
accounts, which activities may conflict or compete with the Trust.
The Sponsor or its related
parties may purchase Shares from the Trust from time to time, and may hold a
material position in the Trust. The Trust will not receive any of the proceeds
from the resale by the Sponsor or its affiliates of these Shares, and the sale
of such Shares may impact the price at which you may be able to sell your
Shares. The Sponsor and its related parties reserve the right, subject to
compliance with applicable law, to sell into the market or redeem in Creation
Baskets through an Authorized Participant at any time some or all of the Shares
of the Trust acquired for their own accounts. The Sponsor or its related parties
face conflicting interests in determining whether, when and in what amount to
sell or redeem Shares of the Trust. The Sponsor and its related parties are
under no obligation to consider the effect of redemptions on the Trust and other
Shareholders in deciding whether to sell or redeem their Shares.
The Sponsor is responsible
for selecting and engaging the Trust’s service providers, including the
Benchmark Provider. To the extent that the Sponsor has other commercial
arrangements with the service providers, the Sponsor may face conflicts of
interest with respect to its oversight and supervision of the service providers.
Further, to the extent that the Sponsor has investments in SOL and/or in Shares,
and due to the fact that the Sponsor Fee is payable based on the value of the
Shares, the Sponsor may face potential conflicts of interest with respect to the
Benchmark Provider’s valuation of Shares.
Investment
vehicles advised or managed by affiliates of the Sponsor hold a minority
interest in Coinbase Global, the parent of Coinbase Inc., which serves as the
Trust’s Prime Broker and operates one of the digital asset trading platforms
included in the Benchmark price and is the parent of the Solana Custodian.
Investment vehicles
advised or managed by affiliates of the Sponsor own shares in many public
companies listed in the United States, including Coinbase Global, the parent of
Coinbase Inc. which operates the Coinbase trading platform and serves as the
Trust’s Prime Broker. The Trust values its digital assets by reference to the
Benchmark price. Coinbase is one of the digital asset trading platforms included
in the Benchmark.
Although neither the
Sponsor nor any affiliates of the Sponsor nor any investment vehicles managed or
advised by any of them exercise control over Coinbase, it is possible that
positions of investment vehicles managed by affiliates of the Sponsor in
Coinbase may present risks to Shareholders to the extent affiliates of the
Sponsor cause the Sponsor to favor Coinbase’s interests over the interests of
the Trust or its Shareholders with respect to, for example, fees charged, and
the quality of service provided by Coinbase as Prime Broker. Similarly,
investors could have concerns that the Sponsor or affiliates of the Sponsor
could influence market data provided by Coinbase in a way that benefits the
Sponsor, for example by artificially inflating the values of SOL in order to
increase the Sponsor’s fees. This could make the Trust’s Shares less attractive
to investors than the shares of similar vehicles that do not present these
concerns, adversely affect investor sentiment about the Trust and negatively
affect Share trading prices.
Coinbase Global is also
the parent company of the Solana Custodian. The Solana Custodian serves as a
fiduciary and custodian on the Trust’s behalf, and is responsible for
safeguarding digital assets held by the Trust, and holding the private keys that
provide access to the Trust’s digital wallets and vaults. The positions of
investment vehicles managed by affiliates of the Sponsor in the parent company
of the Solana Custodian may present risks to Shareholders to the extent
affiliates of the Sponsor cause the Sponsor to favor the Solana Custodian’s
interests over the interests of the Trust or its Shareholders with respect to,
for example, fees charged, and the quality of service provided by the Solana
Custodian. Similarly, it is possible that investors could have concerns that the
interests owned by investment vehicles managed by affiliates of the Sponsor in
Coinbase could cause it to refrain from taking actions that are in the best
interests of the Trust but that could harm the Solana Custodian. This could make
the Trust’s Shares less attractive to investors than the shares of similar
vehicles that do not present these concerns, adversely affect investor sentiment
about the Trust and negatively affect Share trading prices.
There
is no guarantee that every employee, officer, director or similar person
associated with the Sponsor, the Execution Agent or their affiliates will comply
with the policies, duties and training and refrain from engaging in insider
trading in violation of their duties to the Trust, the Sponsor or the Execution
Agent.
While the Sponsor has
adopted and implemented policies and will adopt standard operating practices
requiring that certain applicable personnel pre-clear personal trading activity
in which SOL is the referenced asset, there is no way to guarantee that every
employee, officer, director, or similar person associated the Sponsor, the
Execution Agent or their affiliates will comply at all times with such policies,
duties and training and refrain from engaging in insider trading in violation of
their duties to the Trust, the Sponsor or the Execution Agent. This risk is
present in traditional financial markets and is not unique to SOL. If such
employees or others affiliated with the Trust, Sponsor, Execution Agent, or
affiliates respectively do engage in illegal conduct or conduct which fails to
meet applicable regulatory standards, the Trust, Sponsor, Execution Agent, or
relevant affiliate respectively could be the target of civil or criminal fines,
penalties, punishments, or other regulatory or other sanctions or lawsuits or
could be the target of an investigation, whether directly or indirectly, such as
on a failure to diligently supervise theory. Any of these outcomes could cause
the Trust and Shareholders to suffer harm.
The Sponsor, the Execution
Agent and their affiliates may also participate in transactions related to SOL,
either for their own account (subject to certain internal employee trading
operating practices) or for the account of other clients, and such transactions
may occur prior to, during, or after the commencement of this offering. Such
transactions may not serve to benefit the Shareholders of the Trust and may have
a positive or negative effect on the value of the SOL held by the Trust and,
consequently, on the market value of SOL.
Limited
recourse.
The Solana Custodian has
limited liability for any loss, claim, or damage to the Trust, impairing the
ability of the Trust to recover losses relating to its SOL and any recovery may
be limited, except to the extent that such loss, claim or damage directly
resulted from the negligence, bad faith, willful misconduct or fraud of the
Solana Custodian. In addition, the Solana Custodian is generally not liable for
any loss caused, directly or indirectly, by the failure of the Trust to provide
true, correct and complete information to the Solana Custodian, or a force
majeure event. Furthermore, the Solana Custodian is generally not liable for a
loss caused, directly or indirectly, by any failure or delay to act by any
service provider to the Solana Custodian or any system failure in respect of a
third party’s automated system that prevents the Solana Custodian from
fulfilling its obligations.
Under the Trust Agreement,
the Trustee and the Sponsor will not be liable for any liability or expense
incurred absent fraud, gross negligence, bad faith or willful misconduct on the
part of the Trustee or the Sponsor or breach by the Sponsor of the Trust
Agreement, as the case may be. As a result, the recourse of the Trust or the
Shareholder to Trustee or the Sponsor may be limited.
Risks
Related to the Benchmark.
The
Benchmark has a limited history.
The Benchmark has a
limited history. A longer history of actual performance through various economic
and market conditions would provide greater and more reliable information for an
investor to assess the Benchmark’s performance. The Benchmark Provider has
substantial discretion at any time to change the methodology used to calculate
the Benchmark, including the spot markets that contribute prices to the Trust’s
NAV. The Benchmark Provider does not have any obligation to take the needs of
the Trust, the Trust’s Shareholders, or anyone else into consideration in
connection with such changes. There is no guarantee that the methodology
currently used in calculating the Benchmark will appropriately track the price
of SOL in the future, and the Benchmark could be calculated now or in the future
in a way that adversely affects an investment in the Trust.
The Benchmark Pricing
Sources used by the Benchmark are digital asset spot markets that facilitate the
buying and selling of SOL and other digital assets. Although many Benchmark
Pricing Sources refer to themselves as “exchanges,” they are not registered
with, or supervised by, the SEC or CFTC and do not meet the regulatory standards
of a national securities exchange or designated contract market. For these
reasons, among others, purchases and sales of SOL may be subject to temporary
distortions or other disruptions due to various factors, including the lack of
liquidity in the markets and government regulation and intervention. These
circumstances could affect the price of SOL used in Benchmark calculations and,
therefore, could affect the SOL price as reflected by the Benchmark.
The Benchmark is based on
various inputs which include price data from various third-party SOL spot
markets. The Benchmark Provider does not guarantee the validity of any of these
inputs, which may be subject to technological error, manipulative activity, or
fraudulent reporting from their initial source.
Right
to change the Benchmark.
The Sponsor, in its sole
discretion, may cause the Trust to utilize an index or standard other than the
Benchmark (an “Alternative Benchmark”) at any time, with at least 60 days’ prior
notice to the Shareholders (where possible). The Sponsor may utilize an
Alternative Benchmark for a variety of reasons, including, without limitation,
if investment conditions change such that the Sponsor believes that an
Alternative Benchmark better reflects a fair value price for SOL, the Sponsor
has concerns regarding the Benchmark Provider’s ability to continue to publish
the Benchmark, or the Sponsor otherwise believes that the use of an Alternative
Benchmark would be in the best interest of the Trust. The Sponsor, however, is
under no obligation whatsoever to make such changes in any circumstance. In the
event that the Sponsor intends to establish the Trust’s NAV by reference to an
Alternative Benchmark, it will provide Shareholders with notice in a prospectus
supplement and/or through a current report on Form 8-K or in the Trust’s annual
or quarterly reports.
The
trading platforms that may be designated as a principal market under the
Benchmark Provider’s methodology face a number of risks.
Unlike traditional stock
and commodity exchanges, cryptocurrency trading platforms face a number of
risks, including but not limited to, distributed denial-of-service (“dDoS”),
interruption of trading, hacking of user accounts, lack of standards and naming
convention for symbols, and an unstable technological and legal environment
(causing changes in fee structure, blocking of funds withdrawal, etc.).
Suspension or disruption of market trading in SOL on one or more Benchmark
Pricing Sources may adversely affect the value of the Benchmark.
The
Benchmark is subject to the limitations of its methodology and the Solana
market.
Though the Benchmark is
designed to be representative of the SOL market or otherwise align with its
stated objective, it may not be representative in every case or achieve its
stated objective in all instances. The Benchmark is designed and calculated
strictly to follow the rules of its methodology, and any Benchmark price or
other output is limited in its usefulness to such design and calculation. In
addition, the Benchmark will necessarily be composed of a limited number of
potential principal markets, and thus the Benchmark may not reflect the value of
SOL on crypto trading platforms not considered in the Benchmark. Furthermore,
the Benchmark Provider publicizes its methodology as a whitepaper available for
download on the Benchmark Provider’s website.
The SOL market can be
volatile, including those market interests which the Benchmark intends to
measure or upon which the Benchmark is dependent in order to achieve its stated
objective. For example, illiquidity can have an impact on the quality or amount
of data available to the Benchmark Provider for calculation, and may cause the
Benchmark to produce unpredictable or unanticipated results. In addition, market
trends and changes to market structure may render the objective of the Benchmark
unachievable or cause the Benchmark to become impractical to replicate.
The
Benchmark Provider could experience system failures or errors.
If the computers or other
facilities of the Benchmark Provider, Benchmark Pricing Sources, data providers
and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and
dissemination of the Benchmark may be delayed. Errors in Benchmark data, the
Benchmark computations and/or construction may occur from time to time and may
not be identified and/or corrected for a period of time or at all, which may
have an adverse impact on the Trust and the Shareholders. Any of the foregoing
may lead to the errors in the Benchmark, which may lead to a different
investment outcome for the Trust and its Shareholders than would have been the
case had such events not occurred. The Benchmark is the reference price
for
calculating the Trust’s
NAV. Consequently, losses or costs associated with the Benchmark’s errors or
other risks described above will generally be borne by the Trust and the
Shareholders and neither the Sponsor nor its affiliates or agents make any
representations or warranties regarding the foregoing.
If the Benchmark is not
available, the Trust’s holdings may be fair valued in accordance with the policy
approved by the Sponsor. See “Calculation of NAV—General.” To the extent the
valuation determined in accordance with the policy approved by the Sponsor
differs materially from the actual market price of SOL, the price of the Shares
may no longer track, whether temporarily or over time, the global market price
of SOL, which could adversely affect an investment in the Trust by reducing
investors’ confidence in the Shares’ ability to track the global market price of
SOL. To the extent such prices differ materially from the market price for SOL,
investors may lose confidence in the Shares’ ability to track the market price
of SOL, which could adversely affect the value of the Shares. The Sponsor does
not anticipate that the need to “fair value” SOL will be a common
occurrence.
Risks
related to pricing.
As set forth under
“Calculation of NAV” below, the Trust’s portfolio will be priced, including for
purposes of determining the NAV, based upon the estimated fair market value
(“FMV”) for SOL determined by the Benchmark Provider. The price of SOL in U.S.
Dollars or in other currencies available from other data sources may not be
equal to the prices used to calculate the NAV. The Benchmark Provider has
substantial discretion at any time to change the methodology used to determine
the FMV of SOL, including the spot markets underlying its methodology. The
Benchmark Provider does not have any obligation to take the needs of the Trust,
the Trust’s Shareholders, or anyone else into consideration in connection with
such changes.
The Benchmark Pricing
Sources used by the Benchmark Provider are digital asset spot markets that
facilitate the buying and selling of SOL and other digital assets. Although many
Benchmark Pricing Sources refer to themselves as “exchanges,” they are not
registered with, or supervised by, the SEC or CFTC and do not meet the
regulatory standards of a national securities exchange or designated contract
market. For these reasons, among others, purchases and sales of SOL may be
subject to temporary distortions or other disruptions due to various factors,
including the lack of liquidity in the markets and government regulation and
intervention. These circumstances could affect the price of SOL determined by
the Benchmark Provider.
The NAV of the Trust will
change as fluctuations occur in the market price of the Trust’s SOL holdings.
Shareholders should be aware that the public trading price per Share may be
different from the NAV for a number of reasons, including price volatility,
trading activity, the closing of SOL trading platforms due to fraud, failure,
security breaches or otherwise, and the fact that supply and demand forces at
work in the secondary trading market for Shares are related, but not identical,
to the supply and demand forces influencing the market price of SOL. An
Authorized Participant may be able to create or redeem a Creation Basket at a
discount or a premium to the public trading price per Share.
Shareholders also should
note that the size of the Trust in terms of total SOL held may change
substantially over time and as Creation Baskets are created and redeemed.
In the event that the
value of the Trust’s SOL holdings or SOL holdings per Share is incorrectly
calculated, neither the Sponsor nor the Administrator will be liable for any
error and such misreporting of valuation data could adversely affect the value
of the Shares.
SOLANA
AND THE SOLANA MARKET
This section of the
Prospectus provides a more detailed description of SOL, including information
about the historical development of SOL, how a person holds SOL, how to use SOL
in transactions, how to trade SOL, the markets where SOL can be bought, held and
sold, the SOL over-the-counter (“OTC”) market and government oversight of
SOL.
Solana
and the Solana Network
Solana is a digital asset that is created and
transmitted through the operations of the peer-to-peer Solana network, which is
a network of computers, known as nodes, that operates on cryptographic
computer-code based logic, called a protocol. No single entity owns or operates
the Solana network, the infrastructure of which is collectively maintained by a
distributed user base, a phenomenon known as decentralization. The Solana
network allows people to exchange tokens of value, called Solana, which are
recorded on a public transaction ledger known as the Solana blockchain. Solana
can be used to pay for goods and services, including computational power on the
Solana network, or it can be converted to fiat currencies, such as the U.S.
dollar, at rates determined on platforms that enable trading in Solana or in
individual end-user-to-end-user transactions under a barter system.
The Solana network allows users to write and
implement computer programs called smart contracts-that is, general-purpose code
that executes on every computer in the network and can instruct the transmission
of information and value based on a sophisticated set of logical conditions.
Using smart contracts, users can create markets, store registries of debts or
promises, represent the ownership of property, move funds in accordance with
conditional instructions and create digital assets other than Solana on the
Solana network. Smart contract operations are executed on the Solana blockchain
in exchange for payment of Solana. The Solana network is one of a number of
projects intended to expand blockchain use beyond just a peer-to-peer money
system.
The Solana protocol introduced the
Proof-of-History (PoH) timestamping mechanism. PoH automatically orders on-chain
transactions by creating a historical record that proves an event has occurred
at a specific moment in time. PoH is intended to provide a transaction
processing speed and capacity advantage over other blockchain networks like
Bitcoin and Ethereum, which rely on sequential production of blocks and can lead
to delays caused by validator confirmations. PoH is a new blockchain technology
that is not widely used. PoH may not function as intended. For example, it may
require more specialized equipment to participate in the network and fail to
attract a significant number of users, or may be subject to outages or fail to
function as intended. In addition, there may be flaws in the cryptography
underlying PoH, including flaws that affect functionality of the Solana network
or make the network vulnerable to attack.
In addition to the PoH mechanism described
above, the Solana network uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to
incentivize Solana holders to validate transactions. Unlike proof-of-work, in
which miners expend computational resources to compete to validate transactions
and are rewarded coins in proportion to the amount of computational resources
expended, in proof-of-stake, validators risk or “stake” coins to compete to be
randomly selected to validate transactions and are rewarded coins in proportion
to the amount of coins staked. Any malicious activity, such as disagreeing with
the eventual consensus or otherwise violating protocol rules, results in the
forfeiture or “slashing” of a portion of the staked coins. Proof-of-stake is
viewed as more energy efficient and scalable than proof-of-work and is sometimes
referred to as “virtual mining.”
History
of Solana
The Solana protocol was
first conceived by Anatoly Yakovenko in a 2017 whitepaper.
Development of the Solana
network is overseen by the Solana Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organization,
and Solana Labs, Inc. (“Solana Labs”), a Delaware corporation, which
administered the original network launch and token distribution. Although Solana
Labs and the Solana Foundation continue to exert significant influence over the
direction of the development of Solana, the Solana network, like the Ethereum
network, is understood to be decentralized and does not require governmental
authorities or financial institution intermediaries to create, transmit or
determine the value of SOL.
In order to own, transfer
or use SOL directly on the Solana network (as opposed to through an
intermediary, such as a custodian), a person generally must have internet access
to connect to the Solana network. SOL transactions may be made directly between
end-users without the need for a third-party intermediary. To prevent the
possibility of double-spending Solana, a user must notify the Solana network of
the transaction by broadcasting the transaction data to its network peers. The
Solana network provides confirmation against double-spending by memorializing
every transaction in the Solana blockchain, which is publicly accessible and
transparent. This memorialization and verification against double-spending is
accomplished through the Solana network validation process, which adds “blocks”
of data, including recent transaction information, to the Solana blockchain.
Unlike other blockchains that rely solely on sequential production of blocks
through proof-of-work or proof-of-stake mechanisms, however, the Solana network
introduces PoH, which creates a historical record that proves an event has
occurred at a specific moment in time.
Smart
Contracts and Development on the Solana network
Smart contracts are
programs that run on a blockchain that can execute automatically when certain
conditions are met. Smart contracts facilitate the exchange of anything
representative of value, such as money, information, property, or voting rights.
Using smart contracts, users can send or receive digital assets, create markets,
store registries of debts or promises, represent ownership of property or a
company, move funds in accordance with conditional instructions and create new
digital assets. Smart contracts and DApps can execute their code on the
execution layer of the Layer 1 (as defined below) Solana network, through
Execution Clients located on the Layer 1 Solana network. Alternatively, one
proposed path to enabling the Solana network to scale - i.e., removing some
computational load and thus network congestion from the Layer 1 Solana network -
is to facilitate smart contracts and DApps executing their code on Layer 2s (as
defined below) and rolling up (as defined below) their transactions back to the
main Layer 1 Solana network through the Layer 1 network’s consensus
mechanism.
Development on the Solana
network involves building more complex tools on top of smart contracts, such as
DApps; organizations that are autonomous, known as decentralized autonomous
organizations (“DAOs”); and entirely new decentralized networks. For example, a
company that distributes charitable donations on behalf of users could hold
donated funds in smart contracts that are paid to charities only if the charity
satisfies certain pre-defined conditions.
In total, as of June 1, 2025, more than 200
DApps are currently built on the Solana network, including DApps in the
collectible non-fungible token, gaming, music streaming, and decentralized
finance categories.
Moreover, the Solana
network has also been used as a platform for creating new digital assets and
conducting their associated initial coin offerings.
More recently, the Solana
network has been used for DeFi or open finance platforms, which seek to
democratize access to financial services, such as borrowing, lending, custody,
trading, derivatives and insurance, by removing third-party intermediaries. DeFi
can allow users to lend and earn interest on their digital assets, exchange one
digital asset for another and create derivative digital assets such as
stablecoins, which are digital assets pegged to a reserve asset such as fiat
currency. Over the course of 2025, between
$6 billion and $13 billion
worth of digital assets were locked up as collateral on DeFi platforms on the
Solana network.
In addition, the Solana
network and other smart contract platforms have been used for creating
non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”). Unlike digital assets native to smart contract
platforms which are fungible and enable the payment of fees for smart contract
execution. Instead, NFTs allow for digital ownership of assets that convey
certain rights to other digital or real-world assets. This new paradigm allows
users to own rights to other assets through NFTs, which enable users to trade
them with others on the Solana network. For example, an NFT may convey rights to
a digital asset that exists in an online game or a DApp, and users can trade
their NFT in the DApp or game, and carry them to other digital experiences,
creating an entirely new free-market internet-native economy that can be
monetized in the physical world.
Overview
of the Solana Network Operations
In order to own, transfer
or use SOL directly on the Solana network on a peer-to-peer basis (as opposed to
through an intermediary, such as a custodian or centralized exchange), a person
generally must have internet access to connect to the Solana network. SOL
transactions may be made directly between end-users without the need for a
third-party intermediary. To prevent the possibility of double-spending SOL, a
user must notify the Solana network of the transaction by broadcasting the
transaction data to its network peers. The Solana network provides confirmation
against double-spending by memorializing every peer-to-peer transaction in the
Solana blockchain, which is publicly accessible and transparent. This
memorialization and verification against double-spending of peer-to-peer
transactions is accomplished through the Solana network validation process,
which adds “blocks” of data, including recent transaction information, to the
Solana blockchain. Unlike other blockchains that rely solely on sequential
production of blocks through proof-of-work or proof-of-stake mechanisms,
however, the Solana network introduces PoH, which creates a historical record
that proves an event has occurred at a specific moment in time.
Summary
of a Solana Transaction
Prior to engaging in
Solana transactions directly on the Solana network, a user generally must first
install on its computer or mobile device a Solana network software program that
will allow the user to generate a private and public key pair associated with a
Solana address. The Solana network software program and the Solana address also
enable the user to connect to the Solana network and transfer Solana to, and
receive Solana from, other users.
Each user’s Solana network
address, or wallet, is associated with a unique “public key” and “private key”
pair. To receive Solana in a peer-to-peer transaction, the Solana recipient must
provide its public key to the party initiating the transfer. This activity is
analogous to a recipient for a transaction in U.S. dollars providing a routing
address in wire instructions to the payor so that cash may be wired to the
recipient’s account. The payor approves the transfer to the address provided by
the recipient by “signing” a transaction that consists of the recipient’s public
key with the private key of the address from which the payor is transferring the
Solana. The recipient, however, does not make public or provide to the sender
its related private key, only its public key.
Neither the recipient nor
the sender reveal their private keys in a peer-to-peer transaction, because the
private key authorizes transfer of the funds in that address to other users.
Therefore, if a user loses their private key, the user may permanently lose
access to the Solana contained in the associated address. Likewise, Solana is
irretrievably lost if the private key associated with them is deleted and no
backup has been made. When sending Solana, a user’s Solana wallet must validate
the transaction with the sender’s associated private key. In addition, since
every computation on the Solana network requires processing power, there is a
transaction fee involved with the transfer that is paid by the payor and the
resulting digitally
validated transaction is
sent by the user’s Solana network software program to the Solana network
validators to allow transaction confirmation.
Solana network validators
record and confirm transactions when they validate and add blocks of information
to the Solana blockchain. No minimum amount of Solana is required to become a
validator, which allows them to activate a unique validator key pair (consisting
of a public and private validator key). When a validator is selected to validate
a block, it creates that block, which includes data relating to (i) the
verification of newly submitted transaction requests and accepted transactions
and (ii) a reference to the prior block in the Solana blockchain to which the
new block is being added. The validator becomes aware of outstanding unrecorded
transactions through the data packet transmission and distribution discussed
above.
Upon the addition of a
block of Solana transactions, the Solana network software program of both the
spending party and the receiving party will show confirmation of the transaction
on the Solana blockchain and reflect an adjustment to the Solana balance in each
party’s Solana network public key, completing the Solana transaction. Once a
transaction is confirmed on the Solana blockchain, it is irreversible.
Some Solana transactions
are conducted “off-blockchain” and are therefore not recorded in the Solana
blockchain. Some “off-blockchain transactions” involve the transfer of control
over, or ownership of, a specific digital wallet holding Solana or the
reallocation of ownership of certain Solana in a digital wallet containing
assets owned by multiple persons, such as a digital wallet maintained by a
digital assets platform. In contrast to on-blockchain transactions, which are
publicly recorded on the Solana blockchain, information and data regarding
off-blockchain transactions are generally not publicly available. Therefore,
off-blockchain transactions are not truly Solana transactions in that they do
not involve the transfer of transaction data on the Solana network and do not
reflect a movement of Solana between addresses recorded in the Solana
blockchain. For these reasons, off-blockchain transactions are subject to risks
as any such transfer of Solana ownership is not protected by the protocol behind
the Solana network or recorded in, and validated through, the blockchain
mechanism.
Creation
of New Solana
Initial
Creation of Solana
Unlike other digital assets such as Bitcoin,
which are solely created through a progressive mining process, 500 million SOL
were created in connection with the launch of the Solana network. The initial
500 million Solana were distributed as follows:
|
• |
Investors: 189 million SOL, or 37.8% of the supply, was sold
in private sales to venture capital and other investors conducted between
2018 to 2021. |
|
• |
Solana Foundation: 52 million SOL, or 10.4% of the supply, was
distributed to the SOL Foundation for operational costs incurred in the
development of the Solana network. |
|
• |
Solana Labs, Inc.: 64 million SOL, or 12.8% of the supply, was
retained by Solana Labs to be used, at least in part, to compensate the
employees of Solana Labs. |
|
• |
Community: 195 million SOL, or 39.0% of the supply, was
distributed to the Solana Foundation to be deployed as bounties, incentive
programs, marketing and grants. |
Following the launch of
the Solana network, SOL supply increases through a progressive minting process.
SOL supply and issuance rate varies based on factors such as recent use of the
network.
Proof-of-Stake
Process
Unlike proof-of-work, in
which validators expend computational resources to compete to validate
transactions and are rewarded coins in proportion to the amount of computational
resources expended, in proof-of-stake, validators risk or “stake” coins to
compete to be randomly selected to validate transactions and are rewarded coins
in proportion to the amount of coins staked. Any malicious activity, such as
validating multiple blocks, disagreeing with the eventual consensus or otherwise
violating protocol rules, results in the forfeiture or “slashing” of a portion
of the staked coins. Proof-of-stake is believed by some to be more energy
efficient and scalable than proof-of-work.
Under a proof-of-stake
protocol, token holders who voluntarily commit to staking are given the
exclusive right to validate transactions and participate in consensus. Token
holders can elect to stake their SOL in order to earn SOL tokens as staking
rewards. Token holders can actively participate in the staking of their SOL by
operating a validator node.
Alternatively, token
holders can participate in staking by delegating their SOL to a validator node
operated by another party. Validator nodes are selected by the Solana network to
validate transactions and earn staked SOL rewards for completing such
validation. Approximately every 400-600 milliseconds, a new block is added to
the Solana network with the latest transactions processed by the network, and
the validator that generated this block is awarded SOL. As such, there is not a
competitive race to solve a mathematical puzzle that prevails in a proof-of-work
consensus mechanism.
Fees are paid to
validators that participate in the consensus and propose new blocks on the
blockchain and other validators earn much lower fees for attesting to each
block. Validators perform both roles on a continuous basis and are called upon
on a basis determined by the protocol. The SOL trading market may be impacted by
the supply of SOL that voluntarily elects to commit to staking. The Solana
network issues a fixed amount of rewards for voting on blocks, which are divided
among the participating validators. The less validators and the less users
staking their SOL, the more rewards are available, and vice versa.
Staking
The Sponsor seeks to stake
substantially all of the Trust’s assets through one or more trusted Staking
Providers. In consideration for any staking activity in which the Trust may
engage, the Trust would receive certain staking rewards of SOL tokens, which may
be treated as income for U.S. federal income tax purposes. The amount of SOL the
Trust may receive as reward for its staking activity can vary significantly.
Staking activity comes with a risk of loss of SOL. Staked assets are not subject
to the protections enjoyed by depositors with FDIC or SIPC member institutions.
The Trust may also be subject to “slashing” penalties. Slashings occur when a
validator attests to two different histories of the chain and penalties occur
when a validator is offline for a prolonged period of time. In combination, they
deter malicious validators from attacking blockchains. To date, no slashing
penalty has been assessed on the Solana network. The Sponsor believes that the
Staking Providers are reputable and will not engage in harmful behavior that
could lead to slashing or penalties but the Sponsor cannot guarantee that there
will be no slashing penalties assessed.
In May of 2025 the SEC
Division of Corporation Finance's staff issued a “Statement on Protocol Staking
Activities” (the “Statement”). The Statement gave the SEC staff’s view regarding
staking on networks that use a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. The staff's
view is that some of these activities do not involve the offer and sale of
securities within the meaning of the Securities Act and the Exchange Act.
Accordingly, under such an interpretations, the participants in such staking
activities do not need to register these transactions with the SEC under the
Securities Act. The Sponsor believes that the Trust’s staking activities are of
the type described in the Statement and therefore does not involve the purchase
and sale of securities.
However, if the staff or
the SEC were to disagree with the Sponsor’s position, or if the SEC or the staff
were to take a position counter to the position stated in the Statement, the
Trust or its service providers may be deemed to be in violation of federal
securities laws. The SEC Division of Corporation Finance subsequently gave a
similar statement with regard to certain liquid staking activities in August of
2025.
Staking rewards are
computed and issued once per Epoch. Generally, an Epoch is approximately two
days long on the Solana network. Rewards accrued in a given Epoch are issued to
all validators and delegators in the first block of the following Epoch. Staking
yield is presented as an annualized figure, though the number varies each Epoch
as the inflation rate and total active stake continually changes. Staking
rewards have historically ranged from a low of 5.33% in June 2022 to a high of
12.36% in January 2025.
The treatment of staking
in a grantor trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes is still
developing. As a grantor trust, the Trust can undertake only certain types
of activities. Please see “Taxation of the Trust” below for more
details.
Limits
on Solana Supply.
The rate at which new SOL
supply has been minted and put into circulation has varied since network launch.
Additionally, the Solana protocol reduces the SOL supply by eliminating 50% of
transaction fees paid to the network. As a result, net changes in SOL supply are
expected to vary in the future.
At network launch, the SOL circulating supply
was 8 million SOL. Between network launch and September 30, 2025, the
circulating supply of SOL increased by roughly 6,800% to approximately 544
million SOL.
In February 2021, the SOL supply inflation rate
was changed from 0.1% to a new initial inflation rate of 8%. The 8% initial
inflation rate is scheduled to decline in 15% increments until a long-term
inflation rate of 1.5% is reached. As of September 30, 2025, the SOL supply
issuance rate was approximately 4.2% on an annual basis before any offsets for
eliminated transaction fees.
Modifications
to the Solana Protocol
Historically, the Solana network’s development
has been overseen by Solana Labs, the Solana Foundation and other core
developers. The Solana Foundation and core developers are able to access and
alter the Solana network source code and, as a result, they are responsible for
quasi-official releases of updates and other changes to the Solana network’s
source code.
For example, in March 2020, the Solana network
launched the Mainnet Beta version of the Solana network, one month after
launching the testnet, Tour de SOL. Solana Labs led the development of these
reference implementations.
The Solana network operates using open-source
protocols, meaning that any user can become a node by downloading the Solana
Client and participating in the Solana network, and no permission of a central
authority or body is needed to do so. In addition, anyone can propose a
modification to the Solana network’s source code and then propose that the
Solana network community support the modification. These proposed modifications
to the Solana network’s source code, if adopted, can lead to forks (referred to
as “planned forksˮ because they take place through a formal process). A
forthcoming “hard fork” called “Alpenglow” was announced by developers of the
Solana network in May of 2025 and is expected to reduce transaction finality
time and enhance network security. Alpenglow and other future updates could be
improperly implemented or not implemented at all, potentially creating
vulnerabilities, outages and disruptions in the Solana network, which would
impact the price of SOL and the Shares.
In the case of planned forks, the core
developers, including those associated with or funded by the Solana Foundation,
are able to access and alter the Solana network source code and, as a result,
they are typically responsible for proposing quasi-official or widely publicized
releases of updates and other changes to the Solana network’s source code called
SIMDs. Any user can propose an idea for modifying the Solana network’s source
code, and the core developers are responsible for merging the proposed idea into
the SIMD repository on GitHub, where it formally becomes a SIMD. However, the
release of proposed updates to the Solana network’s source code by core
developers does not guarantee that the updates will be adopted. The developers
of each Solana Client must agree to implement the SIMD’s changes to the Solana
network in the source code for their respective client software, nodes must
accept the changes made available by the developers of the Solana Client
software they use by choosing to individually download the modified Solana
Client software, and ultimately a critical mass of validators and users - such
as DApp and smart contract developers, as well as end users of DApps and smart
contracts, and anyone else who transacts on the Solana blockchain or Solana
network - must support the shift, or the upgrades will lack adoption.
Typically in the case of a planned fork, once
the SIMDs are formally introduced by being merged into the SIMD repository on
GitHub, a robust debate within the Solana community as to the advisability of
the proposed change ordinarily follows. Assuming the core developers at the
protocol level and the developers of individual Solana Clients reach a broad
consensus among themselves in favor of introducing the change into the
respective source code they are responsible for developing and maintaining, the
source code modification will be introduced and made available to download. A
modification of the Solana network’s source code is only effective with respect
to the Solana nodes that download it and modify their Solana Clients
accordingly, and in practice such decisions are heavily influenced by the
preferences of validators and users. Typically, after a modification introduced
and if a sufficiently broad critical mass of users and validators support the
modification and nodes download the modification into their individual Solana
Clients, the change is implemented and the Solana network continues to operate
uninterrupted, assuming there are no software issues (e.g., bugs, outages,
etc.). However, if less than a sufficiently broad critical mass (in practice,
amounting to a substantial majority) of users and validators support the
proposed modification and nodes refuse to download the modification to their
Solana Clients, and the modification is not backwards compatible with the Solana
blockchain or network or the Solana Clients of nodes prior to their
modification, the consequence would be what is known as a “hard fork” of the
Solana network, with one group of nodes running the pre-modified software, with
users and validators continuing to use the pre-modified software, while the
other group would adopt and run the modified software. See “Risk Factors -A
temporary or permanent “fork” or “clone” could adversely affect an investment in
the Shares.”
Core development of the Solana source code has
increasingly focused on modifications of the Solana protocol to increase speed
and scalability and to allow for financial and non-financial next generation
uses. The Trust’s activities will not directly relate to scalability or upgrade
projects, though such projects may potentially increase demand for Solana and
the utility of the Solana network as a whole. Conversely, if they are
unsuccessful or they cause users or application or smart contract developers to
migrate away from the Solana blockchain, demand for SOL could potentially be
reduced. Also, projects that operate and are built within the Layer 1 Solana
blockchain and network may increase the data flow on the Solana network and
could either “bloat” the size of the Solana blockchain or slow confirmation
times.
Forks
and Airdrops
A “hard fork” of the
Solana network (or any other a proof-of-stake digital asset network) occurs when
there is a disagreement among users and validators over modifications to the
network, which are typically made through software upgrades and subsequently
accepted or rejected through downloads or lack thereof of the relevant software
upgrade by users. If less than a substantial majority of users and validators
consent to a proposed modification, and the modification is not compatible with
the software prior to its modification, a fork in the blockchain results, with
one prong running the pre-modified software and the other running
the modified software. The
effect of such a fork is the existence of two versions of the network running in
parallel, yet lacking interchangeability. After a fork, holders of the original
digital asset typically end up holding equal amounts of the original digital
asset and the new digital asset.
For example, in August 2017,
bitcoin “forked” into bitcoin and a new digital asset, bitcoin cash, as a result
of a several-year dispute over how to increase transaction throughput. The
solution favored by the majority of users and miners was to make software
changes that would allow “off-chain” scaling solutions, such as the Lightning
Network, which works by allowing secure transactions to occur in a separate
network of bilateral payment channels that only periodically settle through a
transaction on the main Bitcoin network. A minority group favored a less complex
approach of simply increasing the number of transactions that can be validated
at the same time. A sizable minority of miners adopted software that implemented
the latter approach, which effectively created a new network, the Bitcoin Cash
network, with a transaction history identical to that of the Bitcoin Network.
The identical transaction history meant that each holder of bitcoin at the time
of the new network’s formation continued to hold bitcoin for use on the Bitcoin
Cash network, but also received an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash for use on the
new network.
Forks may also occur after a
significant security breach. For example, in June 2016, a smart contract
developed and deployed on the Ethereum network was hacked and approximately $60
million worth of ether was stolen, which resulted in most participants in the
Ethereum ecosystem electing to adopt a hard fork that effectively reversed the
hack. However, a minority of users continued to develop the old blockchain, now
referred to as “Ethereum Classic” with the digital asset on that blockchain also
named ether, or ETC. Ethereum Classic’s ether remains traded on several digital
asset trading platforms.
Additionally, a fork could be
introduced by an unintentional, unanticipated software flaw in the multiple
versions of otherwise compatible software users run for any given digital asset.
Such a fork could adversely affect SOL’s viability. It is possible, however,
that a substantial number of users and validators could adopt an incompatible
version of the network while resisting community-led efforts to merge the two
chains, resulting in a permanent fork.
A hard fork can introduce new
security risks. Another possible result of a hard fork is an inherent decrease
in the level of security. After a hard fork, it may become easier for an
individual validator or validator pool to exceed 50% of the processing power of
the Solana network, thereby making the network more susceptible to attack. A
fork in the Solana network could adversely affect an investment in the
Shares.
In addition to forks, SOL (or
any other digital asset) may become subject to a similar occurrence known as an
“airdrop.” In an airdrop, the promoters of a new digital asset announce to
holders of another digital asset that they will be entitled to claim a certain
amount of the new digital asset for free simply by virtue of having held the
original digital asset at a certain point in time leading up to the airdrop. For
example, in March 2017, the promoters of Stellar Lumens announced that anyone
that owned ether as of June 26, 2017 could claim, until August 27, 2017, a
certain amount of Stellar Lumens. Airdrops could create operational security,
legal or regulatory, or other risks for the Trust, the Sponsor, Authorized
Participants, or other entities.
From time to time, the Trust may be entitled to
Incidental Rights or IR Assets by virtue of its ownership of SOL, generally
through a fork in the Solana blockchain, an airdrop offered to holders of SOL or
other similar event.
In the event the Trust
becomes entitled to Incidental Rights or IR Assets by virtue of its ownership of
SOL, the Sponsor will instruct the Trust to immediately and irrevocably disclaim
all rights to the IR Assets so created. SOL is the only digital asset that will
be held by the Trust. In the event the Trust seeks to change
its treatment of
Incidental Rights or IR Assets, an application would need to be filed with the
SEC by the Exchange seeking approval to amend its listing rules.
In the event of a fork,
the Sponsor will, as permitted by the terms of the Trust Agreement, determine
which network it believes is generally accepted as the Solana network and should
therefore be considered the appropriate network, and the associated asset as
SOL, for the Trust’s purposes.
If the Trust modifies its
policy on forks and airdrops, notice to Shareholders will be provided on the
Trust’s website, in a prospectus supplement, through a current report on Form
8-K and/or in the Trust’s annual or quarterly reports.
Forms
of Attack Against the Solana network
All networked systems are
vulnerable to various kinds of attacks. As with any computer network, the Solana
network contains certain vulnerabilities. For example, the Solana network is
currently vulnerable to a “51% attack” where, if a validator or group of
validators acting in concert were to gain control of more than the relevant
threshold of the staked SOL, a malicious actor would be able to gain full
control of the network and the ability to manipulate the Solana blockchain.
Although referred to generically as “51% attacks”, there are different
thresholds that could lead to different types of attack on the consensus
process. For more information, see “Risk Factors—Flaws in the source code of
Solana, or flaws in the underlying cryptography, could leave the Solana network
vulnerable to a multitude of attack vectors.” As of September 30, 2025, the top
three largest staking pools controlled nearly 69% of the SOL staked on the
Solana network.
In addition, many digital
asset networks have been subjected to a number of denial-of-service attacks,
which has led to temporary delays in block creation and in the transfer of SOL.
Any similar attacks on the Solana network that impact the ability to transfer
SOL could have a material adverse effect on the price of SOL and the value of
the Shares.
For example, on September 14, 2021, the Solana
network experienced a significant disruption, later attributed to a type of
denial-of-service attack, and was offline for 17 hours, only returning to full
functionality 24 hours later. While persons associated with Solana Labs and/or
the Solana Foundation are understood to have played a key role in bringing the
network back online, the broader community also played a key role, as Solana
validators coordinated to upgrade and restart the network. Any similar attacks
on the Solana network that impact the ability to transfer Solana could have a
material adverse effect on the price of SOL and the value of the Shares.
This is not intended as an
exhaustive list of all forms of attack against the Solana network. For
additional information, see the “Risk Factors” section of this Prospectus.
Market
Participants
Validators
In proof-of-stake,
validators risk or stake coins to compete to be randomly selected to validate
transactions and are rewarded for performing their responsibilities and behaving
in accordance with protocol rules. Malfunctions that cause validators to go
offline and, in turn, inhibit them from performing their duties, can result in
financial penalties (e.g., inactivity leak). Any malicious activity, such as
validating multiple blocks for the same slot, making incorrect attestations or
otherwise violating protocol rules, results in the penalization or in extreme
cases slashing of staked coins and forced exit from performing validator duties.
The penalty varies depending on the type of offense and correlation to potential
offenses by other validators.
Validators range from SOL enthusiasts to
professional operations that design and build dedicated machines and data
centers, including “clusters,” which are groups of validators that act
cohesively and combine their processing to confirm transactions. On the Solana
network, a validator does not have any minimum staking requirement in order to
participate in maintaining the network. When a validator confirms a transaction,
the validator and any associated stakers receive fees, including a base fee and
a discretionary tip (“block rewards”). During the course of ordering
transactions and validating blocks, validators may be able to prioritize certain
transactions in return for increased transaction fees, an incentive system known
as “Maximal Extractable Value” or MEV. For example, in blockchain networks that
facilitate DeFi protocols in particular, such as the Ethereum network, users may
attempt to gain an advantage over other users by increasing offered transaction
fees to incentivize validators to give their submitted transaction requests
priority. Validators less commonly capture MEV in the Solana network because,
unlike the Ethereum network, it does not publicly expose transactions before
they are accepted by a validator. However, some efforts are underway to help
Solana Validators consistently capture MEV.
Block rewards are not newly minted SOL from
inflation but are composed of transaction fees, with half the fee being burned
and the other half going to the validator who produces and validates the block.
Validators also earn through inflation rewards for securing the network and may
receive additional revenue from the MEV. Validators are paid immediately upon
block production, and delegators receive their share of rewards from the
validator they stake with, usually at the end of an epoch. As such, block
rewards and transaction fees are not considered staking rewards and will not
accrete to the Trust.
Investment
and Speculative Sector
This sector includes the
investment and trading activities of both private and professional investors and
speculators. Historically, larger financial services institutions are publicly
reported to have limited involvement in investment and trading in digital
assets, although the participation landscape is beginning to change. Currently,
there is relatively limited use of digital assets in the retail and commercial
marketplace in comparison to relatively extensive use by speculators, and a
significant portion of demand for digital assets is generated by speculators and
investors seeking to profit from the short- or long-term holding of digital
assets.
Retail
Sector
The retail sector includes
users transacting in direct peer-to-peer SOL transactions through the direct
sending of SOL over the Solana network. The retail sector also includes
transactions in which consumers pay for goods or services from commercial or
service businesses through direct transactions or third-party service providers,
although the use of SOL as a means of payment is still developing and has not
been accepted in the same manner as bitcoin due to SOL’s relative nascency and
because SOL has a generally different purpose than bitcoin. In addition, end
users of DApps and smart contracts built on the Layer 1 Solana network can
access many types of goods and services and engage in a variety of transactions
using the functionality of the relevant DApp or smart contract.
Service
Sector
This sector includes
companies that provide a variety of services including the buying, selling,
payment processing and storing of SOL. For example, Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini
are some of the larger Solana trading platforms by volume traded. Coinbase
Custody Trust Company, LLC, the Solana Custodian for the Trust, is a digital
asset custodian that provides custodial accounts that store SOL for users. If
Solana network continues grows in adoption, it is anticipated that service
providers may expand the currently available range of services and that
additional parties will enter the service sector for the Solana network.
Competition
As of September 2025, over
17,000 different digital tokens are tracked CoinGecko.com, of which Solana is
currently the 6th
largest digital asset by market capitalization. While Solana has enjoyed some
success in its limited history, the aggregate value of outstanding SOL is
smaller than that of bitcoin and ether and may be eclipsed by the more rapid
development of other digital assets. In addition, a number of newer digital
assets also function as smart contracts platforms, including Avalanche and
Cardano. Some industry groups are also creating private, permissioned blockchain
versions of Solana.
Government
Oversight
As digital assets have
grown in both popularity and market size, the U.S. Congress and a number of U.S.
federal and state agencies (including FinCEN, SEC, OCC, CFTC, FINRA, the CFPB,
the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, the IRS, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,
the FDIC, the Federal Reserve and state financial institution and regulators)
have been examining the operations of digital asset networks, digital asset
users and the digital asset markets, with particular focus on the extent to
which digital assets can be used to launder the proceeds of illegal activities
or fund criminal or terrorist enterprises and the safety and soundness of
exchanges or other service providers that hold or custody digital assets for
users. Many of these state and federal agencies have issued consumer advisories
regarding the risks posed by digital assets to investors.
Recently, President Trump
has issued executive orders addressing the administration’s intention to
establish a comprehensive digital asset regulatory framework. It is not
possible to predict whether, or when, any of these developments will lead to
Congress granting additional authorities to the SEC or other regulators, what
the nature of such additional authorities might be, how additional legislation
and/or regulatory oversight might impact the ability of digital asset markets to
function or how any new regulations or changes to existing regulations might
impact the value of digital assets generally and SOL held by the Trust
specifically. The consequences of increased federal regulation of digital assets
and digital asset activities could have a material adverse effect on the Trust
and the Shares.
In addition, the SEC, U.S.
state securities regulators and several foreign governments have issued warnings
and instituted legal proceedings in which they argue that certain digital assets
may be classified as securities and that both those digital assets and any
related initial coin offerings are subject to securities regulations. The
outcomes of these proceedings, as well as ongoing and future regulatory actions
may alter, perhaps to a materially adverse extent, the nature of an investment
in the Shares or the ability of the Trust to continue to operate. Additionally,
U.S. state and federal, and foreign regulators and legislatures have taken
action against virtual currency businesses or enacted restrictive regimes in
response to adverse publicity arising from hacks, consumer harm, or criminal
activity stemming from virtual currency activity.
Various foreign jurisdictions have, and may
continue to, in the near future, adopt laws, regulations or directives that may
affect a digital asset network, the digital asset markets, and their users,
particularly digital asset exchanges and service providers that fall within such
jurisdictions’ regulatory scope.
Spot
Solana Markets
Solana spot markets typically permit investors
to open accounts with the market and then purchase and sell SOL via websites or
through mobile applications. Prices for trades on Solana spot markets are
typically reported publicly. An investor opening a trading account must deposit
an accepted government-issued currency into their account with the spot market,
or a previously acquired digital asset, before they can purchase or sell assets
on the spot market. The process of establishing an account with a Solana market
and trading SOL is different from, and should not be confused with, the process
of users sending SOL from one
Solana address to another Solana address on the
Solana blockchain. This latter process is an activity that occurs on the Solana
network, while the former is an activity that occurs entirely on the private
website operated by the spot market. The spot market typically records the
investor’s ownership of SOL in its internal books and records, rather than on
the Solana blockchain. The spot market ordinarily does not transfer SOL to the
investor on the Solana blockchain unless the investor makes a request to the
exchange to withdraw the SOL in their exchange account to an off-exchange Solana
wallet.
Outside of the spot markets, SOL can be traded
in the over the counter (“OTC”) market in transactions that are not publicly
reported. The OTC market is largely institutional in nature, and OTC market
participants generally consist of institutional entities, such as firms that
offer two-sided liquidity for SOL, investment managers, proprietary trading
firms, high-net-worth individuals that trade SOL on a proprietary basis,
entities with sizeable SOL holdings, and family offices. The OTC market provides
a relatively flexible market in terms of quotes, price, quantity, and other
factors, although it tends to involve large blocks of SOL. The OTC market has no
formal structure and no open-outcry meeting place. Parties engaging in OTC
transactions will agree upon a price - often via phone or email - and then one
of the two parties will then initiate the transaction. For example, a seller of
SOL could initiate the transaction by sending the SOL to the buyer’s Solana
address. The buyer would then wire U.S. dollars to the seller’s bank account.
OTC trades are sometimes hedged and eventually settled with concomitant trades
on Solana spot markets.
THE
TRUST
Overview of
the Trust
The Trust is an
exchange-traded fund that issues Shares that trade on the Exchange under the
ticker symbol QSOL. The Trust’s investment objective is to reflect the
performance of the spot price of SOL as measured using the Benchmark, as
adjusted to reflect the SOL staking rewards earned by the Trust and the Trust’s
expenses and other liabilities. The Trust expects to outperform the Benchmark
before taking its expenses and liabilities into account due to its plans to
receive SOL staking rewards
In seeking to achieve its
investment objective, the Trust will hold SOL and will seek to stake
substantially all of its SOL to earn staking rewards to the extent the Trust, in
the Sponsor’s sole discretion, can engage in staking without undue legal or
regulatory risk, including jeopardizing its status as a grantor trust for U.S.
federal income tax purposes (the “Staking Condition”). The Sponsor has
determined that the Staking Condition has been satisfied. As of the date of this
Prospectus, the Sponsor intends to engage in staking on behalf of the
Trust of substantially all of the Trust's SOL, subject to an amount that it
determines to invest in the Liquidity Sleeve. The Trust will value its Shares
daily based on the value of the Benchmark as of 4:00 p.m. ET. The value of SOL
held by the Trust is determined based on the fair market value (“FMV”) price for
SOL, reflecting the execution price of SOL on its principal market as determined
by the Benchmark Provider. Invesco Capital Management LLC is the sponsor of the
Trust, CSC Delaware Trust Company is the trustee of the Trust, and the Solana
Custodian will hold all of the Trust’s SOL on the Trust’s behalf.
The Trust will process all
creations and redemptions of Shares in transactions with Authorized
Participants. When the Trust issues or redeems its Shares, it will do so only in
blocks of 5,000 Shares (a "Creation Basket") based on the quantity of SOL
attributable to each Share of the Trust (net of accrued but unpaid Sponsor
fees and any accrued but unpaid expenses or liabilities).
Creation and redemption
transactions will be conducted in exchange for SOL in-kind or
cash.
When purchasing Creation
Baskets in-kind with SOL, Authorized Participants and/or their
designees will deliver SOL to the Solana Custodian. After confirming receipt of
the SOL by the Solana Custodian, the Transfer Agent is
authorized by the Sponsor
to issue Creation Baskets of Shares to the creating Authorized Participant in
satisfaction of the creation order.
When purchasing Creation
Baskets for cash, Authorized Participants will deliver cash to the Cash
Custodian. The Execution Agent will be responsible for acquiring the requisite
amount of SOL on behalf of the Trust on an agency basis on the value date of the
order. Once the Execution Agent selects a Solana Counterparty, the Cash
Custodian will transfer cash to the Solana Counterparty in payment for the
requisite amount of SOL. The SOL acquired from the Solana Counterparty will be
transferred to the Solana Custodian. After receipt of the SOL by the Solana
Custodian, the Transfer Agent will issue Creation Baskets of Shares to the
creating Authorized Participant in satisfaction of the creation order.
When redeeming Creation
Baskets in-kind for SOL, the Transfer Agent will redeem the Shares and
the Solana Custodian will distribute the resulting SOL to the redeeming
Authorized Participant and/or its designee in satisfaction of the redemption
order.
When redeeming Creation
Baskets for cash, the Execution Agent will be responsible for selling the
requisite amount of SOL on behalf of the Trust on an agency basis. Once the
Execution Agent selects a Solana Counterparty, the Solana Custodian will
transfer SOL to the Solana Counterparty in return for the requisite cash
payment. The cash received from the Solana Counterparty will be delivered to the
Cash Custodian. After receipt of the cash payment, the Transfer Agent will
redeem the Shares and the Cash Custodian will distribute the resulting cash to
the redeeming Authorized Participant in satisfaction of the redemption
order.
In connection with both
cash creation and cash redemption transactions, the Execution Agent, pursuant to
the oversight of the Sponsor, will decide how and with which Solana Counterparty
to transact on the Trust’s behalf.
Subject to specific
instructions from the Sponsor, the Execution Agent in its discretion is
responsible for selecting the method of transacting, the price, the Solana
Counterparty or Counterparties and the trading platform or venue (if any) for
the execution of each purchase and sale of SOL on behalf of the Trust. The
Execution Agent has established policies and procedures for identifying,
monitoring and performing due diligence on potential Solana Counterparties and
trading platforms or venues, with entities being added or removed from
consideration on an ongoing basis. In addition, the Execution Agent evaluates
Solana Counterparties and trading platforms or venues on a per-transaction
basis. At the time it selects a Solana Counterparty for any specific
transaction, the Execution Agent may consider a number of factors in an effort
to seek to achieve “best execution,” including price, transaction costs, speed,
and likelihood of execution and settlement, taking into account the size of the
transaction and the experience and capabilities of the Solana Counterparty.
Relying on its history of transacting in SOL, the Execution Agent assesses
Solana Counterparties in seeking to achieve the best overall outcome for the
Trust. Although the Trust is relatively new, and therefore does not have a long
history of trading SOL, the Execution Agent (and its asset management
affiliates) have extensive experience, having traded over $12.5 Billion in
digital assets in 2020 across over ten counterparties for other accounts.
As of the date of this
Prospectus, Virtu Financial Singapore Pte. Ltd. , JSCT, LLC, Flow Traders B.V.,
FalconX Bravo, Inc., and Cumberland DRW LLC have been identified by the
Execution Agent as Solana Counterparties. Each of these Solana Counterparties
are, and any other Solana Counterparty the Execution Agent, on behalf of the
Trust, places orders with in the future will be, subject to U.S. federal and/or
state licensing requirements or similar laws in non-U.S. jurisdictions, and
maintain practices and policies designed to comply with AML and KYC regulations
or similar laws in non-U.S. jurisdictions. The Execution Agent, on behalf of the
Trust, may engage additional Solana Counterparties at any time. JSCT, LLC is an
affiliate of Jane Street Capital LLC and Virtu Financial Singapore Pte. Ltd. is
an affiliate of Virtu Americas LLC. Each of Jane Street Capital LLC and Virtu
Americas LLC is an Authorized Participant.
The Trust expects to
purchase or sell SOL in connection with cash creation or redemption
transactions, and may direct the Execution Agent to sell SOL on behalf of the
Trust to pay certain expenses, including the Sponsor Fee and as part of
liquidating staking rewards for cash to pay quarterly distributions to
Shareholders. Each creating or redeeming Authorized Participant will be charged
(i) a transaction fee and (ii) the Custody Transaction Fee in connection with
each creation or redemption transaction.
To support the ability of
Authorized Participants to provide liquidity at prices that reflect the value of
the Trust’s assets and to facilitate orderly transactions in the Shares, the
Trust will ordinarily process redemptions of Creation Baskets within two
business days following receipt of a redemption request by an Authorized
Participant.
Creation Baskets are
expected to be created when there is sufficient demand for Shares, including
when the market price per Share is at a premium to the NAV. Authorized
Participants are expected to sell such Shares to the public at prices that
reflect, among other factors, the value of the Trust’s assets, supply of and
demand for Shares and market conditions at the time of a transaction. Similarly,
Creation Baskets are expected to be redeemed when the market price per Share is
at a discount to the NAV. Investors seeking to purchase or sell Shares on any
day are expected to transact in the secondary market, on the Exchange or other
national securities exchanges, at the market price per Share, rather than
through the creation or redemption of Creation Baskets.
The Sponsor believes that
the design of the Trust will enable Investors to effectively and efficiently
implement strategic and tactical asset allocation strategies that use SOL by
investing in the Shares rather than directly in SOL.
Description
of Lukka Prime Solana Reference Rate
The Benchmark is designed
to provide an estimated fair market value for SOL, in a manner that aligns with
U.S. GAAP and IFRS accounting guidelines regarding fair market value
measurements. In this regard, the Benchmark Provider seeks to identify a
“principal market” each day for SOL, by evaluating eligible Solana trading
platforms across a variety of different criteria, including the trading
platforms’ oversight and governance frameworks, microstructure efficiency,
trading volume, data transparency and data integrity. As of September 30, 2025,
the following trading platforms are considered to be eligible trading platforms
by the Benchmark Provider: Binance, Bitfinex, Bitflyer, Bitstamp, Bullish,
Coinbase, Crypto.com, Gate.io, Gemini, HitBTC, Huobi, itBit, Kraken, KuCoin,
LMAX, MEXC Global, OKX and Poloniex (collectively, “Benchmark Pricing Sources”).
The Benchmark Provider reviews trading platforms eligible for inclusion in the
Benchmark quarterly. In determining which trading platforms to include, the
Benchmark Provider evaluates each trading platform using proprietary ratings
criteria. The Benchmark Provider periodically reassesses the trading platforms
eligible to be considered Benchmark Pricing Sources, and makes adjustments as
needed.
In pursuit of its
commitment to provide the highest quality, institutional grade product
offerings, the Benchmark Provider adheres to strict oversight practices. As part
of this oversight, the Benchmark Provider maintains formal governance boards to
oversee its data products. The Benchmark Provider’s Price Integrity Oversight
Board (“PIOB”) seeks to ensure the integrity and validity of the Benchmark
Provider’s pricing and valuation products and to also ensure that products
remain fit for purpose. One of the PIOB’s responsibilities, among others, is to
determine the market data that is utilized in the Benchmark Provider’s pricing
and valuation processes. This includes any approval of new sources of market
data and the suspension or discontinuation of existing sources of market data.
Additionally, the Benchmark Provider’s PIOB regularly reviews eligible trading
platforms, including any new sources of pricing information. As it pertains to
the impact on the NAV of the Trust, the continuous monitoring of pricing data
helps ensure that pricing accurately reflects the economic reality that the
benchmark is intended to measure. A change in the Benchmark Pricing Sources may
result in a change in the Trust’s NAV.
The Benchmark Provider
launched the Benchmark in August 2024, and the Benchmark has been back-populated
to August 24, 2020. The below graph compares the historical Benchmark returns to
the prices on each of the Benchmark Pricing Sources with U.S. Dollar-SOL trading
pairs from January 1, 2024 to June 1, 2025.
As is evident from the
foregoing graph and as expected given arbitrage activity across trading
platforms, the historic Benchmark returns have aligned closely to the prices of
SOL on each of the Benchmark Pricing Sources with U.S. Dollar-SOL trading
pairs.
The below table contains
the market share and volume information for each Benchmark Pricing Source with
U.S. Dollar-SOL trading pairs. The below table shows the percentage that each
Benchmark Pricing Source’s volume represents out of the sum of the volumes of
all of the Benchmark Pricing Sources with U.S. Dollar- Solana trading pairs.
Note that the Benchmark Provider will prioritize U.S. Dollar trading pairs
before using trading platforms where other pairs, such as stablecoins, are
used:
|
Lukka
Prime Solana Volumes SOLN-USD (Jan 1, 2024 to Sept 30, 2025) |
|
Trading
Platform |
Volume
(SOLN) |
Volume
(%) |
|
Bitfinex |
16,655,013 |
1.33% |
|
Bitstamp |
44,242,422 |
3.53% |
|
Bullish |
6,360,204 |
0.51% |
|
Coinbase |
743,432,916 |
59.27% |
|
Crypto.com |
145,226,394 |
11.58% |
|
Gemini |
21,097,082 |
1.68% |
|
itBit |
2,661,912 |
0.21% |
|
Kraken |
228,893,543 |
18.25% |
|
LMAX |
38,844,161 |
3.10% |
|
OKEx |
6,963,458 |
0.56% |
Trading
platforms with U.S. Dollar trading pairs:
Bitfinex: A British Virgin Islands-based
trading platform registered as a Money Services Business with the Financial
Crimes Enforcement Network. Bitfinex is also licensed as a Digital Asset Service
Provider from the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador.
Bitflyer: A Japan-based trading platform
registered as a Virtual Currency Exchange from the Japan Financial Services
Agency. Bitflyer is also licensed as a virtual currency business under the
NYSDFS BitLicense.
Bittrex: A Liechtenstein-based trading platform
registered as a Money Services Business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network. Bittrex is also licensed in Bermuda and Liechtenstein. On November 20,
2023, Bittrex announced its intention to wind down its operations and disable
trading activity effective December 4, 2023. On November 21, 2023, Bittrex was
removed as a Benchmark Pricing Source as a result of its announcement.
Bitstamp: A U.K.-based trading platform
registered as a Money Services Business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network. Bitstamp is also licensed as a virtual currency business under the
NYSDFS BitLicense.
Coinbase: A U.S.-based trading platform
registered as a Money Services Business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network. Coinbase is also licensed as a virtual currency business under the
NYSDFS BitLicense.
Crypto.com: A Singapore-based trading platform
with a Digital Token License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Crypto.com is also registered as a Money Services Business with the Financial
Crimes Enforcement Network.
Gemini: A U.S.-based trading platform
registered as a Money Services Business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network. Gemini is also licensed as a virtual currency business under the NYSDFS
BitLicense.
itBit: A U.S.-based trading platform registered
as a Money Services Business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
itBit is also chartered by the NYSDFS as a limited purpose trust company.
Kraken: A U.S.-based trading platform
registered as a Money Services Business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network. Kraken is also registered as a Digital Currency Exchange Provider with
the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.
LMAX: A Gibraltar-based trading platform
registered as a Money Services Business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network. LMAX is also registered as a DLT provider by the Gibraltar Financial
Services Commission.
Trading
platforms without U.S. Dollar trading pairs:
Binance: A Cayman Islands-based trading
platform with a Digital Asset Service Provider registration from the Autorité
des Marchés Financiers, MVP Preparatory License from Dubai’s Virtual Assets
Regulatory Authority and a variety of other licenses across the European and
Asia-Pacific regions.
Gate.io: A Cayman Islands-based trading
platform registered as a Money Services Business with the Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network. Gate.io is also registered as a DLT provider by the
Gibraltar Financial Services Commission and a variety of other licenses across
the European and Asia-Pacific regions.
HitBTC: A British Virgin Islands-based trading
platform that currently does not hold any licenses from any licensing
authorities.
Huobi: A Gibraltar-based trading platform with
a Distributed Ledger Technology Provider License from the Gibraltar Financial
Services Commission. Huobi is also registered as a Digital Currency Exchange
Provider with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.
KuCoin: A Seychelles-based trading platform
that currently does not hold any licenses from any licensing authorities.
MEXC Global: A Seychelles-based trading
platform registered as a Digital Currency Exchange Provider with the Australian
Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre and a variety of other licenses across
the European region.
OKX (fka OKEx): A Seychelles-based trading
platform with an MVP Preparatory License from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory
Authority.
Poloniex: A Seychelles-based trading platform
that currently does not hold any licenses from any licensing authorities.
The Trust confirms that
the Sponsor may, in its sole discretion, change either the Benchmark or
Benchmark Provider without Shareholder approval.
In the event that the
Benchmark Provider changes the methodology of the Benchmark, the Benchmark
Provider will inform the Sponsor of the nature of the change and the timeline
for implementation. The Sponsor will notify investors of material changes to the
Benchmark, or the Sponsor’s decision to change the Benchmark or the Benchmark
Provider, by providing notice to investors and market participants as promptly
as practicable through some combination of press release, website disclosure,
8-K filing or registration statement supplement, in addition to any notice to
the listing exchange required under applicable listing rules.
In determining the value
of SOL, the Benchmark Provider applies a five-step weighting process for
identifying the principal trading platform for SOL and the last price on that
trading platform. A Base Exchange Score (“BES”) that takes into account the
criteria above is assigned to each Benchmark Pricing Source in order to select
the most appropriate primary trading platform and then an executed trading
platform price is determined at 4:00 p.m. ET. The characteristics of each
trading platform are weighted as follows for their BES:
|
• |
Oversight (35%): This score
reflects the rules in place to protect and to give access to investors and
is a function of a variety of factors. The score assigned for trading
platform oversight will depend on parameters such as jurisdiction,
regulation, “Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering Compliance”
(KYC/AML), etc. Benchmark Participants will receive a higher score if they
are subject to more stringent regulation, including comprehensive KYC/AML
screening, and the level of currency oversight and regulation in their
home jurisdiction. |
|
• |
Microstructure Efficiency
(30%): The second trading platform characteristic is microstructure
efficiency. The Benchmark takes the effective bid-ask spread as a proxy
for efficiency. For each trading platform and currency pair, the Benchmark
takes an estimate of the “effective spread,” which is a common approach to
measuring trade execution costs. |
|
• |
Data Integrity (25%): Data
Integrity provides a metric of how consistent a trading platform’s trading
activity is with its underlying market microstructure. This is done by
aligning a trading platform’s trade data for a given product with quotes
data pertaining to the same market. Trading platforms whose traded prices
deviate outside the spreads indicated by the quotes data are penalized.
This would potentially expose nefarious actions such as wash trading or
other potential manipulation of data. The metric is computed by joining a
sample of trades with quotes by trading platform, product and time. With
this, the Benchmark Provider computes the maximum observed ask price and
the minimum observed bid price over a rolling window in time. This serves
to define a range of possible trade prices that would be expected based on
the quotes data. The Benchmark Provider then aggregates this dataset by
trading platform, computing the fraction of transactions where the trade
price was within the expected range as computed in the prior step. This
fraction is multiplied by 100 to give the data integrity
score. |
|
• |
Data Transparency (10%):
Transparency is the term used for a quality score that is determined by
the level of detail of the data offered by a trading platform. Similar to
the jurisdiction hierarchy, Level 1, the highest level in the transparency
hierarchy, is assigned 100 points and is reduced
by |
20
points for each subsequent lower level. The most transparent (Level 1) trading
platforms offer order-level data, followed by order book (Level 2), trade-level
(Level 3), candles (Level 4), and then no data (Level 5).
For financial reporting
purposes, the Trust will determine the principal market for SOL in accordance
with ASC Topic 820-10, and such determination is considered from the Trust’s
perspective. The Benchmark follows a methodology designed to identify the
principal market for SOL at a given time. Procedures will be implemented by the
Sponsor to review and confirm the prices utilized to value SOL reflect fair
value in accordance with ASC Topic 820 and will be reviewed by the Sponsor’s
Valuation Committee on a periodic basis.
With respect to the
Trust’s Authorized Participants or their affiliates, the Trust notes that it has
no authority over which trading platforms the Authorized Participants or their
affiliates might transact on, although the Trust expects that most Authorized
Participants or their affiliates may transact on several of the trading
platforms that are Benchmark Pricing Sources for the Benchmark Provider. The
Trust notes that for transactions in which it is selling SOL, it may do so in
principal-to-principal transactions arranged by the Execution Agent, although
the Trust is eligible to execute trades on all of the trading platforms used by
the Benchmark Provider. While the principal to principal market is the market in
which the Execution Agent, on the Trust’s behalf, would normally transact for
sales of SOL, in considering all information reasonably available in accordance
with the guidance in ASC 820-10-35-5A, the Trust notes that the identification
of a principal market is completed by the Benchmark Provider based on a variety
of different criteria including but not limited to trading platforms’ oversight
and governance frameworks, microstructure efficiency, trading volume, data
transparency and data integrity. The Trust views this evidence to the contrary
as appropriate basis to determine a primary market that is not the
principal-to-principal market, in accordance with the guidance in ASC
820-10-35-5A. The Sponsor performed extensive back testing of the Benchmark,
comparing the Benchmark Provider’s historical designation of the primary trading
platform and the daily pricing from said trading platform, relative to where the
Trust is expected to transact. The Sponsor concluded that the methodology
consistently resulted in a principal market that aligns with the Trust’s
expected transaction activities. Procedures will be implemented to review and
confirm the above on at least a quarterly basis, adjusting the frequency of that
review if determined necessary by the Sponsor’s Valuation Committee.
The Trust and the Sponsor
are not responsible for the calculations performed by the Benchmark Provider or
for the development or implementation of the Benchmark Provider’s
methodologies.
WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NONE OF LUKKA INC., THE
SPONSOR, OR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SUBSIDIARIES OR AFFILIATES SHALL HAVE ANY
LIABILITY FOR ANY ERRORS,
OMISSIONS, DELAYS OR
INTERRUPTIONS IN THE BENCHMARK PRICING PROCESS NONE OF LUKKA INC., THE SPONSOR,
OR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SUBSIDIARIES OR AFFILIATES MAKES ANY EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE WITH RESPECT TO THE PRICING SERVICES OR
ANY DATA INCLUDED THEREIN. WITHOUT LIMITING ANY OF THE FOREGOING, IN NO EVENT
SHALL LUKKA INC., THE SPONSOR, OR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SUBSIDIARIES OR
AFFILIATES HAVE ANY LIABILITY FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR INDIRECT, PUNITIVE,
SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR LOSSES, EVEN IF NOTIFIED OF THE POSSIBILITY
THEREOF. THERE ARE NO THIRD-PARTY BENEFICIARIES OF ANY AGREEMENTS OR
ARRANGEMENTS BETWEEN LUKKA INC. AND THE SPONSOR OTHER THAN THEIR RESPECTIVE
SUBSIDIARIES AND AFFILIATES.
The
Trust’s Expenses
The Trust will pay the
Sponsor a unified fee of 0.25% per annum (the “Sponsor Fee”) as compensation for
services performed under the Trust Agreement (as defined herein). The Trust’s
only ordinary, recurring expense is the Sponsor Fee.
The Sponsor Fee will be
accrued daily and paid monthly in arrears in U.S. dollars, and will be
calculated by the Administrator. The Sponsor may, at its sole discretion and
from time to time, waive all or a portion of the Sponsor’s Fee for stated
periods of time. The Sponsor is under no obligation to waive any portion of its
fees and any such waiver shall create no obligation to waive any such fees
during any period not covered by the waiver. The Administrator will calculate
the Sponsor Fee on a daily basis by applying the 0.25% annualized rate to the
Trust’s total net assets. To cover the Sponsor Fee, and extraordinary expenses
not assumed by the Sponsor, the Sponsor or its delegate will cause the Trust (or
its delegate) to instruct the Execution Agent to convert SOL held by the Trust
into U.S. dollars. At the direction of the Trust, the Execution Agent will seek
to sell SOL at approximately the price at which it is valued by the Trust and in
the smallest amounts required to permit such payments as they become due, with
the intention of minimizing the Trust’s holdings of assets other than SOL.
Accordingly, the amount of SOL to be sold may vary from time to time depending
on the level of the Trust’s expenses and liabilities and the market price of
SOL. Any cash held by the Trustee will not bear any interest. Each sale of SOL
by the Trust to pay the Sponsor Fee or other Trust expenses will give rise to
taxable gain or loss to Shareholders. See “U.S. Federal Income Tax
Consequences—Taxation of U.S. Shareholders.” The NAV of the Trust and the number
of SOL represented by a Share will decline each time the Trust accrues the
Sponsor Fee or any Trust expenses not assumed by the Sponsor. The Trust is not
responsible for paying any costs associated with the transfer of SOL to or from
the Trust in connection with paying the Sponsor Fee or in connection with
creation and redemption transactions, except for potential borrowing costs under
a short-term credit facility or alternative liquidity arrangement.
Except as noted below, the
Sponsor has agreed to pay all of the Trust’s ordinary expenses out of the
Sponsor Fee, including, but not limited to, the Trustee’s fees, the fees of the
Administrator and the Transfer Agent, the fees of the Solana Custodian, the fees
of the Execution Agent, Exchange listing fees, SEC registration fees, printing
and mailing costs, legal costs and audit fees. The Sponsor’s payment of such
Trust expenses is not subject to a cap. The Sponsor also paid the costs of the
Trust’s organization.
The Trust will receive a
portion of the staking rewards earned through its staking program in the form of
SOL. The Staking Provider and Sponsor are entitled to receive a fee for their
respective roles in facilitating the Trust's staking program (collectively,
"Staking Expenses"). The Trust will pay the Staking Expenses at a rate of 3% of
the gross staking rewards received by the Trust. The staking rewards earned by
the Trust will accrue to the Trust’s account with the Solana Custodian and will
generally be staked in the same way as the Trust’s already staked SOL. The
expenses of staking the Trust’s SOL will be paid from the proceeds of the
Trust's staking program and the Trust will retain the remaining amount of the
staking rewards.
The Trust may incur
certain extraordinary expenses that are not assumed by the Sponsor. These
include, but are not limited to, taxes and governmental charges, any applicable
brokerage commissions, financing fees, borrowing costs under a short term credit
facility or alternative liquidity arrangement, Solana network fees and similar
transaction fees, expenses and costs of any extraordinary services performed by
the Sponsor (or any other service provider) on behalf of the Trust to protect
the Trust or the interests of Shareholders (including, for example, in
connection with any fork of the Solana blockchain), any indemnification of the
Sponsor, Cash Custodian, Solana Custodian, Staking Provider, Administrator or
other agents, service providers or counterparties of the Trust and extraordinary
legal fees and expenses, including any legal fees and expenses incurred in
connection with litigation, regulatory enforcement or investigation matters.
CALCULATION
OF NAV
General
The Shares are valued each
Business Day as of 4:00 p.m. ET. The value of SOL held by the Trust is
determined based on the fair market value price for SOL determined by the
Benchmark Provider. In this regard, the Benchmark Provider seeks to identify a
“principal market” for SOL each day, by evaluating eligible SOL trading
platforms across a variety of different criteria, including the trading
platforms’ oversight and governance frameworks, microstructure efficiency,
trading volume, data transparency and data integrity. The Sponsor believes that
use of the Benchmark mitigates against idiosyncratic exchange risk, as the
failure of any individual Benchmark Pricing Source will not materially impact
pricing for the Trust. It also allows the Administrator to calculate the NAV in
a manner that significantly deters manipulation.
As discussed, the fact
that the NAV is based on data from multiple trading platforms makes manipulation
more difficult in a well-arbitraged and fractured market, as a malicious actor
would need to manipulate multiple trading platforms simultaneously to impact the
NAV.
The Trust’s NAV is an
amount denominated in U.S. dollars and is not utilized in determining the number
of Shares that an Authorized Participant will receive in creating Shares, or the
value of SOL that an Authorized Participant will receive in redeeming Shares, as
those transactions are based on the Trust’s SOL holdings per Share. See
“Creation and Redemption of Shares.”
The Trust’s NAV is
calculated by:
|
• |
taking the current market value of its SOL (calculated by the
Benchmark Provider) and any other assets; |
|
• |
subtracting any liabilities (including accrued but unpaid expenses);
and |
|
• |
dividing that total by the total number of outstanding
Shares. |
The Administrator
calculates the NAV of the Trust once each Business Day. The end-of-day SOL price
is calculated using the execution price of SOL on the principal market selected
by the Benchmark Provider as of 4:00 p.m. ET. However, NAVs are not officially
struck until later in the day (often by 5:30 p.m. ET and almost always by 8:00
p.m. ET). The daily valuation process will be overseen by the Sponsor’s
Valuation Team. The pause between 4:00 p.m. ET and 5:30 p.m. ET (or later)
provides the Sponsor’s Valuation Team an opportunity to algorithmically detect,
flag, investigate, and address unusual pricing should it occur.
Consistent with the daily
pricing of all assets held in the Sponsor’s funds that are registered under the
1940 Act, daily valuation oversight resides with the Sponsor’s Valuation Team.
The Sponsor’s Valuation Team is an independent control function within the
Sponsor with the responsibility for oversight of asset pricing. Standardized
controls (such as exception-based reports) are in place and run daily prior to
NAV dissemination to detect “unusual pricing.” This includes, but is not limited
to, missing price reports, unchanged price reports, and large daily price
variance reports. Specifically with respect to the Trust, the Sponsor’s
Valuation Team will monitor the pricing of the Benchmark to ensure that the
Trust’s NAV is determined based on consistent, accurate pricing that the Sponsor
believes is reflective of the value of the Trust’s SOL, and also a transparent
methodology and process. In addition, the Sponsor’s Valuation Team may seek
information and recommendations from the Execution Agent, the Benchmark
Provider, the Solana Custodian, the Prime Broker or others regarding SOL
valuation issues and potential SOL market events.
All price updates are
communicated to the Administrator only by the Sponsor’s pricing team. No members
of the Sponsor’s investment or other business-related teams are authorized to
provide pricing instructions to the Administrator. Price updates are
communicated to the Administrator prior to NAV finalization and therefore would
be incorporated in that day’s NAV.
The Sponsor’s Valuation
Team will monitor for significant events related to digital assets that may
impact the value of the Trust’s SOL, and will determine in good faith whether to
fair value the Trust’s SOL on a given day based on whether certain
pre-determined criteria have been met. For example, if the price of SOL
represented by the Benchmark deviates by more than 25 basis points from the
level established by one or more Alternative Benchmarks, then the Sponsor’s
Valuation Team may (but is under no obligation to) perform additional analyses
and make a recommendation as to whether to utilize an Alternative Benchmark. The
Sponsor’s Valuation Team may also fair value the Trust’s SOL using observed
market transactions from various trading platforms, including some or all of the
trading platforms included in the Benchmark.
In the event the Benchmark
becomes unavailable or if the Sponsor or Administrator determines that the
Benchmark does not reflect an accurate SOL price, an independent assessment to
designate the Trust’s principal market is performed by looking at pricing and
transaction volume information from eligible trading platforms in which the
Trust transacts only incorporating those. Typically, this will involve a
multi-step process conducted by the Sponsor’s Valuation Team to identify the
principal market for SOL on a given day:
|
• |
First, a list of eligible SOL trading platforms in which the Trust
transacts is compiled and ranked in descending order based on the prior
twelve months of volume of SOL traded on each trading
platform. |
|
• |
Second, any trading platforms that do not comply with licensing
requirements which are applicable to the Trust and the Authorized
Participants are excluded. |
|
• |
Third, reviews of intra-day pricing are completed to identify any
material variances which may impact the price information provided by a
particular trading platform. A SOL trading platform is then selected as
the Trust’s principal market and pricing consumed from that trading
platform. Even if the Benchmark is deemed to be available and reliable,
the aforementioned process is completed periodically as deemed necessary
by the Sponsor’s Valuation Team in order to assess and evaluate the
effectiveness of the process. |
The SOL markets are
generally open on days when U.S. markets are closed, which means that the value
of the SOL owned by the Trust could change on days when Shares cannot be bought
or sold.
The website for the Trust,
www.invesco.com/QSOL, which will be publicly accessible at no charge,
will contain the following information: (a) the prior Business Day’s NAV; (b)
the prior Business Day’s official closing price; (c) calculation of the premium
or discount of such Cboe official closing price against such NAV; (d) data in
chart form displaying the frequency distribution of discounts and premiums of
the Cboe official closing price against the NAV, within appropriate ranges for
each of the four previous calendar quarters (or for the life of the Trust, if
shorter); (e) the Prospectus; and (f) other applicable quantitative information.
The Administrator will also disseminate the Trust’s SOL holdings on a daily
basis on the Trust’s website. The NAV for the Trust will be calculated by the
Administrator once a day and will be disseminated daily to all market
participants at the same time. Quotation and last sale information regarding the
Shares will be disseminated through the facilities of the Consolidated Tape
Association (“CTA”).
The Trust’s periodic
financial statements may not utilize the net asset value of the Trust determined
by reference to the Benchmarks to the extent the methodology used to calculate
the Benchmark is deemed not to be consistent with GAAP. The Trust’s periodic
financial statements will be prepared in accordance with
the Financial Accounting
Standards Board (“FASB”) ASC Topic 820 and utilize an exchange-traded price from
the Trust’s principal market for SOL on the Trust’s financial statement
measurement date. The Sponsor will determine in its sole discretion the
valuation sources and policies used to prepare the Trust’s financial statements
in accordance with GAAP. The Trust intends to engage a third-party vendor to
obtain a price from a principal market for SOL, which will be determined and
designated by such third-party vendor daily based on its consideration of
several trading platform characteristics, including oversight, and the volume
and frequency of trades. Under GAAP, such a price is expected to be deemed a
Level 1 input in accordance with the ASC Topic 820 because it is expected to be
a quoted price in an active market for identical assets or liabilities.
To determine which market
is the Trust’s principal market (or in the absence of a principal market, the
most advantageous market) for purposes of determining fair value in preparing
the Trust’s financial statements, the Trust follows ASC 820-10, which outlines
the application of fair value accounting. ASC 820-10 determines fair value to be
the price that would be received for SOL in a current sale, which assumes an
orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. ASC
820-10 requires the Trust to assume that SOL is sold in its principal market to
market participants or, in the absence of a principal market, the most
advantageous market. Market participants are defined as buyers and sellers in
the principal or most advantageous market that are independent, knowledgeable,
and willing and able to transact. The Trust may transact through Solana
Counterparties, in multiple markets, and its application of ASC 820-10 reflects
this fact. The Trust anticipates that, while multiple venues and types of
markets will be available to the Solana Trading Counterparties from whom the
Sponsor acquires or disposes of the Trust’s SOL, the principal market in each
scenario is determined by looking at the market-based level of volume and SOL
trading activity. Solana Counterparties may transact in a Brokered Market, a
Dealer Market, Principal-to-Principal Markets and Exchange Markets, each as
defined in the FASB ASC Master Glossary. Based on information reasonably
available to the Trust, Exchange Markets have the greatest volume and level of
activity for the asset. The Trust therefore looks to accessible Exchange Markets
as opposed to the Brokered Market, Dealer Market and Principal-to-Principal
Markets to determine its principal market. As a result of the aforementioned
analysis, an Exchange Market has been selected as the Trust’s principal market.
The Trust determines its principal market (or in the absence of a principal
market the most advantageous market) on a quarterly basis to determine which
market is its Principal Market for the purpose of calculating fair value for the
creation of quarterly and annual financial statements.
The process that the
Sponsor has developed for identifying a principal market, as prescribed in ASC
820-10, which outlines the application of fair value accounting. The process
begins by identifying publicly available, well established and reputable SOL
trading platforms (Exchange Markets, as defined in the FASB ASC Master
Glossary), which are selected by the Sponsor and its affiliates in their sole
discretion. Those markets include Binance, Bitfinex, Bitflyer, Bitstamp,
Bullish, Coinbase Pro, Crypto.com, Gate.io, Gemini, HitBTC, Huobi, itBit,
Kraken, KuCoin, LMAX, MEXC Global, OKx, and Poloniex. The Sponsor then, through
a service provider, calculates on each valuation period, the highest volume
venue during the 60-minute period prior to 4:00 ET for SOL. The Sponsor then
identifies that market as the principal market for SOL during that period, and
uses the price for SOL from that venue at 4:00 ET as the principal market
price.
Intraday
Indicative Value
In order to provide
updated information relating to the Trust for use by Shareholders and market
professionals, the Benchmark Provider will calculate and disseminate during each
day the NYSE is open for regular trading an updated intraday indicative value
(“IIV”). The IIV will be calculated by using the prior day’s closing NAV as a
base and updating that value throughout the trading day to reflect changes in
the most recently reported price of SOL as reported by the Benchmark Provider or
another reporting service.
The IIV disseminated
during each day the NYSE is open for regular trading should not be viewed as an
actual real time update of the NAV, because NAV is calculated only once at the
end of each trading day based upon the relevant end of day value of the Trust’s
SOL. The IIV will be calculated every second from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET and
disseminated on a per Share basis every 15 seconds during each day the NYSE is
open for regular trading. Lukka Inc. will disseminate the IIV value through the
facilities of CTA/CQ High Speed Lines. In addition, the IIV will be published on
the Exchange’s website and will be available through on-line information
services such as Bloomberg and Reuters. The IIV as of the time that the NAV is
calculated on a given day may differ from the NAV for such day due to the
differences in the time window of trades used to calculate each price (the NAV
uses a 15-minute window, whereas the IIV draws prices from the last trade on
each trading platform in an effort to produce a relevant, real-time
price).
There are many instances
in the market today where the IIV as of the time that the NAV is calculated on a
given day and the NAV of an ETF for such day are subtly different, whether due
to the calculation methodology, market hours overlap or other factors. The
Sponsor has seen limited or no negative impact on trading, liquidity or other
factors for exchange-traded funds in this situation. The Sponsor believes that
the IIV will closely track the globally integrated SOL price as reflected on the
Benchmark Pricing Sources.
Dissemination of the IIV
provides additional information that is not otherwise available to the public
and is useful to Shareholders and market professionals in connection with the
trading of the Shares on the Exchange. Shareholders and market professionals
will be able throughout the trading day to compare the market price of the
Shares and the IIV. If the market price of the Shares diverges significantly
from the IIV, market professionals will have an incentive to execute arbitrage
trades. For example, if the Trust appears to be trading at a discount compared
to the IIV, a market professional could buy Shares on the Exchange and sell
short futures contracts. Such arbitrage trades can tighten the tracking between
the market price of the Shares and the IIV, and thus can be beneficial to all
market participants.
Stock
Splits
The Sponsor reserves the
right to adjust the Share price of the Trust in the future to maintain
convenient trading ranges for Shareholders in the secondary market. Any
adjustments would be accomplished through stock splits or reverse stock splits.
Such splits would decrease (in the case of a split) or increase (in the case of
a reverse split) the proportionate NAV, but would have no effect on the net
assets of the Trust or the proportionate voting rights of Shareholders or the
value of any Shareholder’s investment.
Other
Assets
The fair values of any
liquid assets held by the Trust primarily in the form of cash and certificates
of deposits are included in the determination of NAV.
Liabilities
The fair value of the
Trust’s liabilities is included in the determination of NAV. These liabilities
are expected generally to consist only of the Sponsor Fee, although liabilities
may also include extraordinary expenses from time to time. See “The Trust—The
Trust’s Expenses.”
Impact
of Trust Expenses on the Trust’s NAV
The amount of SOL
represented by the Shares will be reduced during the life of the Trust each time
the Trust accrues the Sponsor Fee, and to pay for any extraordinary expenses.
This dynamic will occur irrespective of whether the value of the Trust’s assets,
or the trading price of the Shares, rises or falls. Staking activities could
have the opposite effect.
ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION ABOUT THE TRUST
The
Trust
The Trust is a Delaware
statutory trust, formed on June 12, 2025, pursuant to the Delaware Statutory
Trust Act (“DSTA”). The Trust continuously issues common shares representing
fractional undivided beneficial interest in and ownership of the Trust that may
be purchased and sold on the Exchange. The Trust operates pursuant to its
Amended and Restated Declaration of Trust and Trust Agreement, dated as of
November 28, 2025 (the “Trust Agreement”). CSC Delaware Trust Company, a
Delaware trust company, is the Delaware trustee of the Trust.
The Trust is not
registered as an investment company under the 1940 Act and is not required to
register under such act. The Trust will not hold or trade in commodity futures
contracts regulated by the CEA, as administered by the CFTC. The Trust is not a
commodity pool for purposes of the CEA and neither the Sponsor, nor the Trustee
is subject to regulation as a commodity pool operator or a commodity trading
adviser in connection with the Shares.
The Trust is
passively-managed and the Sponsor does not actively manage the SOL held by the
Trust. This means that the Sponsor does not sell SOL at times when its price is
high or acquire SOL at low prices in the expectation of future price increases.
It also means that the Sponsor does not make use of any of the hedging
techniques available to professional SOL investors to attempt to reduce the
risks of losses resulting from price changes. The Trust will not utilize
leverage, derivatives or any similar arrangements in seeking to meet its
investment objective; however, the Trust may utilize a short term credit
facility or an alternative liquidity arrangement for the purposes of obtaining
funds necessary to meet redemptions from the Trust.
The number of outstanding
Shares is expected to increase and decrease from time to time as a result of the
creation and redemption of Creation Baskets. The Trust creates and redeems
Shares from time to time, but only in one or more Creation Baskets. Creation and
redemption transactions will be conducted in exchange for
SOL in-kind or cash.
The Trust has no fixed
termination date.
Dissolution
of the Trust
The Trust will dissolve at
the direction of the Sponsor, and the Sponsor will promptly notify Shareholders
of such dissolution, if any of the following dissolution events occur:
|
• |
Shares are delisted from the Exchange and are not approved for
listing on another national securities exchange within five Business Days
of their delisting; |
|
• |
180 days have elapsed since the Trustee notified the Sponsor of the
Trustee’s election to resign or since the Sponsor removed the Trustee, and
a successor trustee has not been appointed and accepted its
appointment; |
|
• |
the SEC determines that the Trust is an investment company under the
1940 Act, and the Sponsor has made the determination that dissolution of
the Trust is advisable; |
|
• |
the CFTC determines that the Trust is a commodity pool under the CEA,
and the Sponsor has made the determination that dissolution of the Trust
is advisable; |
|
• |
the Trust is determined to be a “money service business” under the
regulations promulgated by FinCEN under the authority of the U.S. Bank
Secrecy Act, as amended (the “BSA”) and is
required |
to comply with
certain FinCEN regulations thereunder or is determined to be a “money
transmitter” (or equivalent designation) under the laws of any state in which
the Trust operates and is required to seek licensing or otherwise comply with
state licensing requirements, and the Sponsor has made the determination that
dissolution of the Trust is advisable;
|
• |
a U.S. regulator requires the Trust to shut down or forces the Trust
to liquidate its SOL; |
|
• |
SOL is determined to be a “security” and is subject to regulation
under U.S. federal securities laws; |
|
• |
any ongoing event exists that either prevents the Trust from making
or makes impractical the Trust’s reasonable efforts to make a fair
determination of the price of SOL for purposes of determining the NAV of
the Trust; |
|
• |
the Sponsor determines that the aggregate net assets of the Trust in
relation to the operating expenses of the Trust make it unreasonable or
imprudent to continue the business of the Trust; |
|
• |
the Trust fails to qualify for treatment, or ceases to be treated, as
a “grantor trust” under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the
“Code”) or any comparable provision of the laws of any State or other
jurisdiction where that treatment is sought, and the Sponsor determines
that, because of that tax treatment or change in tax treatment,
dissolution of the Trust is advisable; |
|
• |
60 days have elapsed since Depository Trust Company (“DTC”) or
another depository has ceased to act as depository with respect to the
Shares, and the Sponsor has not identified another depository that is
willing to act in such capacity; |
|
• |
the Trustee elects to dissolve the Trust after the Sponsor is
conclusively deemed to have resigned effective immediately as a result of
the Sponsor being adjudged bankrupt or insolvent, or a receiver of the
Sponsor or of its property being appointed, or a trustee or liquidator or
any public officer taking charge or control of the Sponsor or of its
property or affairs for the purpose of rehabilitation, conservation or
liquidation and a successor sponsor has not been appointed;
or |
|
• |
the Sponsor elects to dissolve the Trust after the Trustee, Execution
Agent, Administrator or the Solana Custodian (or any successor trustee,
administrator or custodian) resigns or otherwise ceases to be the trustee,
administrator or custodian of the Trust, as applicable, and no replacement
trustee, administrator and/or custodian acceptable to the Sponsor is
engaged. |
In addition, the Trust may
be dissolved at any time for any reason by the Sponsor in its sole discretion.
In respect of dissolution events that rely on Sponsor determinations to dissolve
the Trust (e.g., if the SEC determines that the Trust is an investment company
under the 1940 Act; the CFTC determines that the Trust is a commodity pool under
the CEA; the Trust is determined to be a money transmitter under the regulations
promulgated by FinCEN; the Trust fails to qualify for treatment, or ceases to be
treated, as a grantor trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes; or, following
a resignation by a trustee or custodian, the Sponsor determines that no
replacement is acceptable to it), the Sponsor may consider, without limitation,
the profitability to the Sponsor and other service providers of the operation of
the Trust, any obstacles or costs relating to the operation or regulatory
compliance of the Trust and the ability to market the Trust to investors. To the
extent that the Sponsor determines to continue operation of the Trust following
a determination’s triggering event, the Trust will be required to alter its
operations to comply with the triggering event. In the instance of a
determination that the Trust is an investment company, the Trust and the Sponsor
would have to comply with the regulations and disclosure and reporting
requirements applicable to investment companies and investment advisers. In the
instance of a determination that the Trust is a commodity pool, the Trust and
the Sponsor would have to comply with regulations and disclosure and reporting
requirements applicable to commodity pools and commodity pool operators or
commodity trading advisers. In the event of a determination that the Trust is a
money transmitter, the Trust and the Sponsor will have to comply with applicable
federal and state registration and regulatory requirements for
money transmitters and/or
money service businesses. In the event that the Trust ceases to qualify for
treatment as a grantor trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes, the Trust
will be required to alter its disclosure and tax reporting procedures and may no
longer be able to operate or to rely on pass-through tax treatment. In each such
case and in the case of the Sponsor’s determination as to whether a potential
successor trustee or custodian is acceptable to it, the Sponsor will not be
liable to anyone for its determination of whether to continue or to dissolve the
Trust.
If the Trust is required
to terminate and liquidate, or the Sponsor determines in accordance with Chapter
38 of Title 12 of the Delaware Code, 12 Del. C. § 3801 et seq. (the
“Delaware Act”) that it is appropriate to terminate and liquidate the Trust, the
Sponsor will instruct the Execution Agent to sell the Trust’s SOL and will
distribute to the Shareholders any amounts of the cash proceeds of the
liquidation remaining after the satisfaction of all outstanding liabilities of
the Trust and the establishment of reserves for applicable taxes, other
governmental charges and contingent or future liabilities as the Sponsor will
determine. Shareholders of record on the record date fixed by the Transfer Agent
for a distribution will be entitled to receive their pro rata portions of any
distribution. Following the liquidation of the Trust’s SOL, any remaining
outstanding Shares will be redeemed for cash and distributed to Shareholders in
accordance with the provisions of the Trust Agreement.
Upon dissolution of the
Trust, following completion of winding up of its business by the Sponsor, the
Trustee, upon written directions of the Sponsor, will cause a certificate of
cancellation of the Trust’s Certificate of Trust to be filed in accordance with
applicable Delaware law. Upon completion of the winding up of the business of
the Trust, the Sponsor will be discharged from all obligations under the Trust
Agreement except for its certain obligations that survive dissolution of the
Trust Agreement.
Amendments
The Trust Agreement
provides that it may be amended by the Sponsor in its sole discretion and
without the Shareholders’ consent. Any such amendment to the Trust Agreement
will be effective on such date as designated by the Sponsor in its sole
discretion, except that any amendment that imposes or increases any fees or
charges or prejudices a substantial existing right of the Shareholders will not
become effective until thirty (30) days after notice of such amendment is given
to the Shareholders. However, any amendment to the Trust Agreement that affects
the rights or duties of the Trustee will require the Trustee’s prior written
consent. Every Shareholder, at the time any amendment so becomes effective, will
be deemed, by continuing to hold any Shares or an interest therein, to consent
and agree to such amendment and to be bound by the Trust Agreement as amended
thereby. The Sponsor does not expect to make any amendment that would impair the
right of Authorized Participants to surrender Creation Baskets and receive
therefore the amount of Trust assets represented thereby (less fees in
connection with the surrender of Shares and any applicable taxes or other
governmental charges), except in order to comply with mandatory provisions of
applicable law.
THE
TRUST’S SERVICE PROVIDERS
The
Sponsor
The Sponsor arranged for
the creation of the Trust and is responsible for the ongoing registration of the
Shares for their public offering and the listing of Shares on the Exchange. The
Sponsor will not exercise day-to-day oversight over the Trustee or the Solana
Custodian. Except as noted in “The Trust—The Trust’s Expenses” above, the
Sponsor has agreed to pay all of the Trust’s ordinary expenses out of the
Sponsor Fee, including, but not limited to, the Trustee’s fees, the
Administrator’s fee, the Transfer Agent’s fee, the Solana Custodian’s fee, the
Execution Agent’s fees, Exchange listing fees, SEC registration fees, printing
and mailing costs, legal costs and audit fees. The Sponsor also paid the costs
of the Trust’s organization.
The Sponsor is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Invesco Ltd. Invesco Ltd. and its subsidiaries,
including the Sponsor, are an independent global investment management
group.
The
Sponsor has significant experience overseeing exchange-traded products,
including both 1940 Act-registered exchange-traded products and non-1940
Act-registered exchange-traded products, including a spot bitcoin
exchange-traded product and a spot ether exchange-traded product. As of December
31, 2024, the Sponsor oversees over 200 exchange-traded products with assets
over $700 billion. The Sponsor’s relatively limited experience in this specific
field may not fully equip them to navigate the complexities of digital asset
markets effectively, but by managing its own products and through its
relationships with the Execution Agent and the Solana Custodian, the Sponsor has
amassed significant knowledge regarding SOL and the digital asset markets.
The
Trustee
CSC Delaware Trust
Company, a Delaware trust company located at 251 Little Falls Drive, Wilmington,
DE 19808, acts as the trustee of the Trust as required to create a Delaware
statutory trust in accordance with the Trust Agreement and the DSTA. The Trustee
is appointed to serve as the trustee of the Trust in the State of Delaware for
the sole purpose of satisfying the requirement of Section 3807(a) of the DSTA
that the Trust have at least one trustee with a principal place of business in
the State of Delaware.
General
Duty of Care of Trustee
The Trust Agreement
provides that, to the extent that, at law or at equity, the Trustee has duties
(including fiduciary duties) and liabilities relating thereto to the Trust, the
Sponsor, the Shareholders or any other person, such duties and liabilities are
eliminated and replaced by the duties and liabilities of the Trustee expressly
set forth in the Trust Agreement. Under the Trust Agreement, the duties of the
Trustee shall be limited to (i) accepting legal process served on the Trust in
the State of Delaware and (ii) the execution of any certificates required to be
filed with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware which the Trustee is
required to execute under Section 3811 of the Delaware Act.
Resignation,
Discharge or Removal of Trustee; Successor Trustees
The Trustee may resign at
any time by giving at least 60 days advance written notice to the Sponsor. The
Sponsor may remove the Trustee at any time by giving at least 60 days advance
written notice to the Trustee. Upon effective resignation or removal, the
Trustee will be discharged of its duties and obligations.
If the Trustee resigns or
is removed, the Sponsor, acting on behalf of the Shareholders, is required to
use reasonable efforts to appoint a successor trustee. Any successor Trustee
must satisfy the requirements of Section 3807 of the DSTA. Any resignation or
removal of the Trustee and appointment of a successor Trustee cannot become
effective until a written acceptance of appointment is delivered by the
successor Trustee to the outgoing Trustee and the Sponsor and any fees and other
expenses due to the outgoing Trustee are paid or waived by the outgoing Trustee.
Following compliance with the preceding sentence, the successor will become
fully vested with the rights, powers, duties and obligations of the outgoing
Trustee under the Trust Agreement, with like effect as if originally named as
Trustee, and the outgoing Trustee shall be discharged of its duties and
obligations herein. If no successor Trustee shall have been appointed and shall
have accepted such appointment within forty-five (45) days after the giving of
such notice of resignation or removal, the Trustee may petition any court of
competent jurisdiction for the appointment of a successor Trustee.
If the Trustee resigns and
no successor trustee is appointed within 180 days after the date the Trustee
issues its notice of resignation, the Sponsor will dissolve and liquidate the
Trust and distribute its remaining assets in cash, although in certain
circumstances a Shareholder may request an in-kind liquidating
distribution.
The
Administrator
Under the trust
administration and accounting agreement, the Administrator provides necessary
administrative, tax and accounting services and financial reporting for the
maintenance and operations of the Trust, including calculating the NAV of the
Trust and determining the net assets of the Trust, and calculating the size of
the Creation Baskets.
The
Transfer Agent
The Transfer Agent is
responsible for (1) issuing and redeeming Shares in connection with creation and
redemption transactions, (2) responding to correspondence by Shareholders and
others relating to its duties, (3) maintaining Shareholder accounts and (4)
making periodic reports to the Trust.
The
Solana Custodian
Under the Solana Custody
Agreement, the Solana Custodian is responsible for (1) safekeeping all of the
sol owned by the Trust, (2) opening one or more accounts that hold the Trust’s
SOL and (3) facilitating the transfer of SOL required for the operation of the
Trust as directed by the Sponsor. The Solana Custodian is chartered as a limited
purpose trust company by the NYSDFS and is authorized by the NYSDFS to provide
digital asset custody services. The Solana Custodian is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Coinbase Global, Inc.
The
Cash Custodian
Under the Cash Custody
Agreement, the Cash Custodian is responsible for holding the Trust’s cash in
connection with creation and redemption transactions effected in cash. The Cash
Custodian is a New York state-chartered bank and a member of the Federal Reserve
System.
The
Marketing Agent
The Marketing Agent is
responsible for: (1) working with the Transfer Agent to review and approve, or
reject, purchase and redemption orders of Creation Baskets placed by Authorized
Participants with the Transfer Agent; and (2) reviewing and approving the
marketing materials prepared by the Trust for compliance with applicable SEC and
FINRA advertising laws, rules, and regulations.
The
Staking Provider
If the Staking Condition is satisfied and the
Trust seeks to engage in staking of its SOL, the Trust has entered into an
agreement with Galaxy Blockchain Infrastructure LLC, an affiliate of the
Execution Agent. The Staking Provider will stake the Trust’s SOL as the node
operator and will operate a validator by which the Trust’s SOL is staked. The
Staking Provider will perform its staking services in collaboration with the
Solana Custodian, as the SOL will be staked directly from the Trust’s account
with the Solana Custodian.
The
Execution Agent
The Sponsor has entered
into an agreement with Galaxy Digital Funds LLC, a subsidiary of Galaxy Digital
LP (“Galaxy” or the “Execution Agent”) to serve as Execution Agent. At the
direction of the Sponsor, the
Execution Agent is
responsible for selling SOL on behalf of the Trust to the extent necessary to
permit the payment of the Trust’s expenses. The Trust also will utilize the
services of the Execution Agent to purchase or sell SOL in connection with cash
creations and redemptions. When acquiring or disposing of SOL on behalf of the
Trust in connection with a cash creation or cash redemption transaction, the
Sponsor will provide instructions to the Execution Agent, who will identify a
Solana Counterparty. The Solana Counterparty will not have a pre-existing
material relationship with the Trust, except that in some cases the Solana
Counterparty may be an affiliate of a service provider to the Trust. In
connection with both cash creation and cash redemption transactions, the
Execution Agent, pursuant to the oversight of the Sponsor, will decide how and
with which Solana Counterparty to transact on the Trust’s behalf.
Pursuant to the Execution
Agent Agreement, and subject to specific instructions from the Sponsor, the
Execution Agent in its discretion is responsible for selecting the method of
transacting, the price, the Solana Counterparty or Counterparties and the
trading platform or venue (if any) for the execution of each purchase and sale
of SOL on behalf of the Trust. The Execution Agent has established policies and
procedures for identifying, monitoring and performing due diligence on potential
Solana Counterparties and trading platforms or venues, with entities being added
or removed from consideration on an ongoing basis. In addition, the Execution
Agent evaluates Solana Counterparties and trading platforms or venues on a
per-transaction basis. At the time it selects a Solana Counterparty for any
specific transaction, the Execution Agent may consider a number of factors in an
effort to seek to achieve “best execution,” including price, transaction costs,
speed, and likelihood of execution and settlement, taking into account the size
of the transaction and the experience and capabilities of the Solana
Counterparty. Relying on its history of transacting in SOL, the Execution Agent
assesses Solana Counterparties in seeking to achieve the best overall outcome
for the Trust. Although the Trust is relatively new, and therefore does not have
a long history of trading SOL, the Execution Agent (and its asset management
affiliates) have extensive experience, having traded over $12.5 billion in
digital assets since 2020 across over ten counterparties for other
accounts.
As of the date of this
Prospectus, Virtu Financial Singapore Pte. Ltd. , JSCT, LLC, Flow Traders B.V.,
FalconX Bravo, Inc., and Cumberland DRW LLC have been identified by the
Execution Agent as Solana Counterparties. Each of these Solana Counterparties
are, and any other Solana Counterparty the Execution Agent, on behalf of the
Trust, places orders with in the future will be, subject to U.S. federal and/or
state licensing requirements or similar laws in non-U.S. jurisdictions, and
maintain practices and policies designed to comply with AML and KYC regulations
or similar laws in non-U.S. jurisdictions. The Execution Agent, on behalf of the
Trust, may engage additional Solana Counterparties at any time. JSCT, LLC is an
affiliate of Jane Street Capital LLC and Virtu Financial Singapore Pte. Ltd. is
an affiliate of Virtu Americas LLC. Each of Jane Street Capital LLC and Virtu
Americas LLC is an Authorized Participant.
In addition, as part of
this agreement, the Execution Agent has agreed to co-brand and co-market the
Trust, and the Sponsor has licensed the use of certain Execution Agent
trademarks, service marks and trade names in connection with the Trust. The
Execution Agent is a leader in digital asset investing and trading and has
extensive knowledge of and experience with digital asset investing and related
services and markets.
The Execution Agent offers
passive private funds in both the Solana and Solana markets, including funds in
Brazil and Canada which track the price of SOL. Galaxy also offers active
strategies such as its Flagship Liquid Crypto Fund, which seeks to provide
access to the current and next generation of essential digital assets. Galaxy
also has experience in the SOL and digital asset markets through its affiliates,
including Galaxy Digital Capital Management LP, which has been appointed as a
fiduciary in the bankruptcy liquidation of FTX Trading Ltd. and acts as a
fiduciary managing outside capital.
Galaxy is a subsidiary of
Galaxy Digital Holdings LP (“Galaxy Holdings”). Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd.,
which holds a limited partner interest in Galaxy Holdings, is listed on the
Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “GLXY.”
Authorized
Participants
The Trust will process all
creations and redemptions of Shares in transactions with Authorized
Participants. Creation and redemption transactions will be conducted in exchange
for SOL in-kind or cash.
When purchasing Creation
Baskets in-kind with SOL, Authorized Participants and/or their
designees deliver SOL to the Solana Custodian. After confirming receipt of the
SOL by the Solana Custodian, the Transfer Agent is authorized by the Sponsor to
issue Creation Baskets of Shares to the creating Authorized Participant in
satisfaction of the creation order.
When purchasing Creation
Baskets for cash, Authorized Participants will deliver cash to the Cash
Custodian. The Execution Agent will be responsible for acquiring the requisite
amount of SOL on behalf of the Trust on an agency basis on the value date of the
order. Once the Execution Agent selects a Solana Counterparty, the Cash
Custodian will transfer cash to the Solana Counterparty in payment for the
requisite amount of SOL. The SOL acquired from the Solana Counterparty will be
transferred to the Solana Custodian. After receipt of the SOL by the Solana
Custodian, the Transfer Agent will issue Creation Baskets of Shares to the
creating Authorized Participant in satisfaction of the creation order.
When redeeming Creation
Baskets in-kind for SOL, the Transfer Agent will redeem the Shares and
the Solana Custodian will distribute the resulting SOL to the redeeming
Authorized Participant and/or its designee in satisfaction of the redemption
order.
When redeeming Creation
Baskets for cash, the Execution Agent will be responsible for selling the
requisite amount of SOL on behalf of the Trust on an agency basis. Once the
Execution Agent selects a Solana Counterparty, the Solana Custodian will
transfer SOL to the Solana Counterparty in return for the requisite cash
payment. The cash received from the Solana Counterparty will be delivered to the
Cash Custodian. After receipt of the cash payment, the Transfer Agent will
redeem the Shares and the Cash Custodian will distribute the resulting cash to
the redeeming Authorized Participant in satisfaction of the redemption
order.
In connection with both
cash creation and cash redemption transactions, the Execution Agent, pursuant to
the oversight of the Sponsor, will decide how and with which Solana Counterparty
to transact on the Trust’s behalf.
Authorized Participants
are expected to sell Shares to the public at prices that reflect, among other
factors, the value of the Trust’s assets, supply of and demand for Shares and
market conditions at the time of a transaction.
As of the date of the
Prospectus, the Trust has entered into Authorized Participant Agreements with
Jane Street Capital, LLC and Virtu Americas LLC.
CUSTODY
OF THE TRUST’S ASSETS
Custody
of the Trust’s SOL
The Solana Custodian will
keep the private keys associated with the Trust’s SOL in a “cold storage”
environment where the private keys are generated and secured (the “Prime Custody
Vault”). The Trust intends to conduct its regular SOL transactions, including in
connection with creation and redemption transactions and selling SOL to pay the
Trust’s expenses, directly from the Trust’s Prime Custody Vault in
over-the-counter transactions directly with counterparties selected by the
Execution Agent. While the Trust does not expect to utilize the services of the
Coinbase, Inc. (“Coinbase” or the “Prime Broker”), in connection with
transactions where the Trust’s SOL is being processed in connection with
certain creation or redemption transactions or it is being sold to pay Trust
expenses, the Execution Agent may elect to transact through the Prime Broker. In
such circumstances, the Trust’s SOL may be maintained in a trading account (the
“Trading Balance”) with the Prime Broker, an affiliate of the Solana Custodian.
The Trust’s SOL will be maintained by the Solana Custodian and Coinbase in
accounts that are required to be segregated from the assets held by the Solana
Custodian or Coinbase as principal and, when held in the Prime Custody Vault,
the assets of their other customers. “Cold storage” refers to a safeguarding
method by which the private keys corresponding to the Trust’s SOL are generated
and stored in an offline manner using computers or devices that are not directly
connected to the internet, which is intended to make them more resistant to
hacking, or similarly secure technology. All of the Trust’s SOL will be held in
the Prime Custody Vault except that it may be maintained in the Trading Balance
in connection with certain creation or redemption transactions or when it is
being sold to pay the Sponsor Fee or Trust expenses not assumed by the Sponsor.
To the extent the Trust maintains a Trading Balance with Coinbase, such
short-term holdings represent an omnibus claim on Coinbase’s SOL held on behalf
of clients; these holdings exist across a combination of omnibus hot wallets,
omnibus cold wallets or in accounts in Coinbase’s name on a trading platform
(including third-party venues and Coinbase’s own execution venue) where Coinbase
executes orders to buy and sell SOL on behalf of clients.
Custody of SOL typically
involves the generation, storage and utilization of private keys. These private
keys are used to effect transfer transactions (i.e., transfers of SOL from an
address associated with the private key to another address). Cold storage is a
safeguarding method with multiple layers of protections and protocols, by which
the private key(s) corresponding to the Trust’s SOL is (are) generated and
stored in an offline manner.
Private keys are generated
in offline computers that are not connected to the internet so that they are
resistant to being hacked. Cold storage of private keys involves keeping key
material on storage devices not directly connected to the internet. In
accordance with the Trust’s instructions, the Solana Custodian will keep the
Trust’s SOL in cold storage on an ongoing basis. Please see “Risk
Factors—Cybersecurity Risk Related to Solana,” “—Risks Related to the Markets
and Service Ecosystem for Solana,” and “—Risks Related to the Trust and the
Shares” for a discussion of custody risks.
Solana
Custodian Access to Private Keys and Whitelisting
The Solana Custodian uses
two distinct wallet architectures to support the Trust’s operations. There is
the Prime Custody Vault environment that provides the storage where assets will
be secured when not involved in creation or redemption transactions.
Additionally, there is the Trading Balance environment where assets move through
the Coinbase trading wallets for matching, settlement, and trade
execution.
Prime
Custody Vault
The following groups of
personnel are involved in the Prime Custody Vault wallet digital signing
process. Solana Custodian personnel that participate in wallet private key use
activities each have access to material that is necessary to complete a
transaction, but the material they have access to is not by itself sufficient to
use a wallet private key and sign a transaction unilaterally (e.g., there is
segregation of duties enforced between those that can initiate a private key use
request, and those that can participate in wallet private key use).
|
• |
The Trust: The Sponsor, acting
on behalf of the Trust is responsible for creating and approving the
transaction (including specifying transaction details) within the Prime
Custody Vault. Clients have the ability to manage address whitelist, where
funds are permitted to be sent outside the boundaries of Solana
Custodian’s environment. Modifications to the address book require client
consensus and client-owned hardware two-factor authentication
(2FA). |
|
• |
Facilitation: The Solana
Custodian has a back-office operations team that supports validation of
transaction intent, facilitates optional client video authorization calls,
and collaborates with the operators to track transaction
processing. |
|
• |
Key Management & Physical
Access: Private keys are encrypted and secured with
cryptographically enforced consensus policies and stored in offline
vaults. A secure system is responsible for uploading encrypted key share
materials from a secure storage facility based on authorization from human
operators. Access to a Solana Custodian secure storage facility and
materials therein is physically and logically restricted from a different
operator group required for wallet private key
use. |
|
• |
Key Use: A group of human
operators is responsible for providing the necessary cryptographic
material to allow access to the private key. Cryptographic consensus must
be achieved across this group of human operators before a wallet private
key can be used, and transactions signed to be broadcast
on-chain. |
Upon cryptographic
consensus being achieved the transaction is processed. The Solana Custodian
securely signs the transaction and broadcasts to the blockchain. All
system-to-system authentication and authorization is enforced to ensure that
unauthorized services are blocked from accessing resources supporting wallet
operations.
Trading
Balance
For the ETF trading and
settlement environment, clients have configurable security controls that mirror
those of the Vault wallet.
Specifically, the Sponsor,
on behalf of the Trust, has the ability to manage their address allowlist where
funds are permitted to be sent outside the boundaries of the Solana Custodian’s
environment. Modifications to the address book require client consensus and
client- owned hardware two-factor authentication (2FA).
The wallet private keys
are secured in an online, isolated, high security system that leverages hardware
security modules (HSMs). Transaction signing occurs automatically within this
secure environment.
In the Trading Balance,
any human access to the environment is exceptional, requiring additional secure
authentication protocols, and is actively monitored and logged. The private keys
are encrypted at rest, and stored in a non-exportable format. All
system-to-system authentication and authorization is enforced to ensure that
unauthorized services are blocked from accessing resources supporting wallet
operations.
Verifying
Existence of Solana
The Solana Custodian
issues Systems and Organizational Control (“SOC”) reports for the Prime Custody
Vault, to verify the existence of digital assets among other objectives. It
ensures controls are designed and operating effectively, providing reasonable
assurance that customer digital asset positions held in the Solana Custodian and
Prime Broker are authorized, executed, and accurately and completely
recorded.
Moving
Assets from Cold Storage
To summarize, any movement
of funds initiated by the Solana Custodian on behalf of its customers adhere to
the cold storage principles described above, which are inclusive of
cryptographic consensus enforcement and segregation of duties between personnel
among other security features.
Moving
Assets into Cold Storage
The Solana Custodian
supports transfer of funds between a client’s Trading Balance and Prime Custody
Vault. This process requires a user to comply with the account’s configured
Transfer Policy which governs the approval requirements to be met before a
transfer can be processed. The transfer is considered processed when it receives
the appropriate blockchain confirmations.
Specifically, the
transaction would be broadcasted from the Trading Balance wallet environment and
received by a specific Prime Custody Vault wallet. Moving assets from the
Trading Balance to Prime Custody Vault can be initiated by the client via the
Solana Custodian’s platform UI/API and must comply with client configured
Transfer Policies.
Insurance of the
Solana Custodian
The Solana Custodian
purchases commercial crime and cyber coverage with comprehensive coverage terms
and conditions. The commercial crime insurance program covers both cold and hot
storage assets held by Coinbase Global, Inc. (“Coinbase Global”) and all its
subsidiaries, including the Solana Custodian and Coinbase, Inc. (collectively,
“Coinbase”). Assets held within the Solana Custodian are secured within
Coinbase’s cold storage environment.
Coinbase Global currently maintains a
commercial crime insurance policy. Coinbase Global has maintained a commercial
crime insurance policy since 2013, which is designed to be comprehensive and
intended to cover the loss of client assets held by the Solana Custodian and the
Prime Broker (collectively, Coinbase Global and its subsidiaries are referred to
as the “Coinbase Insureds”), including from employee collusion or fraud, theft,
damage of key material, security breach or hack, and fraudulent transfer. The
commercial crime insurance policy is intended to provide the Coinbase Insureds
and their clients with some of the broadest and deepest insurance coverage in
the crypto industry, with comprehensive coverage terms and conditions. This
policy is renewed annually and the insurance amounts are subject to review and
change. The Solana Custodian has advised the Sponsor that this insurance is
maintained at a commercially reasonable amount for the digital assets custodied
on behalf of the Coinbase Insureds’ clients, including the Trust’s SOL custodied
by the Solana Custodian. The insurance maintained by Coinbase Global is shared
among all of the Coinbase Insured’s customers, is not specific to the Trust or
to customers holding SOL with the Solana Custodian or Prime Broker, and may not
be available or sufficient to protect the Trust from all possible losses or
sources of losses. Further, the coverage will not be sufficient to fully cover
losses for the Trust in the event of a catastrophic, large scale or simultaneous
incident affecting multiple Coinbase clients. Coinbase Global may choose not to
renew, or may be unable to renew any portion or all of these insurance policies,
which may further expose the Trust and its Shareholders to the risk of
loss.
Operation
of the Solana Custodian
Solana which is custodied
by the Solana Custodian is held in segregated wallets and is not commingled with
assets of Solana Custodian or its affiliates or with assets of other customers
of the Solana Custodian. The Solana Custodian has also agreed in the Solana
Custody Agreement that it will not, directly or indirectly, lend, pledge,
hypothecate or rehypothecate any of the Trust’s SOL, and that the Trust’s SOL
assets are not treated as general assets of the Solana Custodian but are instead
considered custodial assets that remain the Trust’s property. Additionally, the
Solana Custodian has agreed to provide the Trust or its authorized independent
public accountant with confirmation of or access to information sufficient to
confirm the SOL held by the Solana Custodian for the Trust and that the Trust’s
SOL is held in a separate, segregated account under the Trust’s name. Under the
Solana Custody Agreement, the Solana Custodian is required to obtain and
maintain, at its sole expense, commercially reasonable insurance coverage for
the custody services it provides to the Trust. The Solana Custody Agreement does
not require that private key information with respect to the Trust’s SOL be kept
in a particular physical location. The Sponsor will continuously evaluate the
Solana Custodian’s performance and operations by engaging in regular
communications and scheduled meetings to ensure that the Solana Custodian
operates consistent with the standards set forth in the Solana Custody Agreement
and the Solana Custodian’s policies and procedures.
The Solana Custodian may
receive deposits of SOL but may not send SOL without use of the corresponding
private keys. In order to send SOL kept in cold storage, private keys must be
accessed from offline cold storage and used to sign transactions. At that point,
the Solana Custodian can upload the fully signed transaction to an online
network and transfer the SOL. Because the Solana Custodian may need to access
private keys from offline storage prior to initiating transactions, the
initiation or crediting of withdrawals or other transactions may be
delayed.
The Solana Custodian
carefully considers the design of the physical, operational and cryptographic
systems for secure storage of the Trust’s private keys in an effort to lower the
risk of loss or theft. No such system is perfectly secure and loss or theft due
to operational or other failure is always possible. See “Risk Factors—Risks
Related to Solana —Cybersecurity Risk Related to Solana .”
The Trust may engage
third-party custodians or vendors besides the Solana Custodian and the Cash
Custodian to provide custody and security services for all or a portion of its
SOL and/or cash, and the Sponsor will pay the custody fees and any other
expenses associated with any such third-party custodian or vendor. The Sponsor
is responsible for overseeing the Solana Custodian and the Trust’s other service
providers. The Sponsor may, in its sole discretion, add or terminate Solana
custodians at any time. The Sponsor may, in its sole discretion, change the
custodian for the Trust’s SOL holdings, but it will have no obligation
whatsoever to do so or to seek any particular terms for the Trust from other
such custodians. However, the Sponsor will only enter into SOL custody
arrangements with custodians that meet the Sponsor’s criteria, including an
agreement to maintain Trust assets in a segregated account, to maintain
insurance and to store the Trust’s private keys in cold storage or in such other
manner as the Sponsor determines provides reasonable protection for the Trust’s
assets from loss or theft.
Under the Solana Custody
Agreement, the Solana Custodian’s liability is subject to the following
limitations, among others: (i) other than with respect to claims and losses
arising from fraud or willful misconduct, the Solana Custodian’s aggregate
liability under the Solana Custody Agreement shall not exceed the greater of (A)
the aggregate fees paid by the Trust to the Solana Custodian in the 12 months
prior to the event giving rise to the Solana Custodian’s liability, and (B) the
value of the affected SOL giving rise to the Solana Custodian’s liability; (ii)
the Solana Custodian’s aggregate liability in respect of each cold storage
address shall not exceed $100 million; and (iii) in respect of any incidental,
indirect, special, punitive, consequential or similar losses, the Solana
Custodian is not liable, even if the Solana Custodian has been advised of or
knew or should have known of the possibility thereof. The Solana
Custodian is not liable
for delays, suspension of operations, failure in performance, or interruption of
service to the extent it is directly due to a cause or condition beyond the
reasonable control of the Solana Custodian. While the Solana Custodian does not
limit the size of each wallet to $100 million in SOL, and there is no guarantee
that the amount of SOL in each Trust wallet will remain below this threshold,
the Sponsor intends to monitor each Trust wallet and adjust the amount of SOL
(valued in USD) in any given Trust wallet (including moving SOL into additional
wallets) in an effort to maintain the amount of SOL in each Trust wallet below
$100 million.
The Trust is not a banking
institution and is not a member of the FDIC or Securities Investor Protection
Corporation (“SIPC”) and, therefore, investments in the Trust are not subject to
the protections enjoyed by depositors with FDIC or SIPC member institutions.
Likewise, the Solana Custodian is not a depository institution and is not a
member of the FDIC or SIPC and, therefore, the Trust’s assets held with the
Solana Custodian are not subject to FDIC or SIPC insurance coverage. In
addition, neither the Trust nor the Sponsor insure the Trust’s SOL.
Also pursuant to the
Solana Custody Agreement, Coinbase, an affiliate of the Solana Custodian, may
provide prime broker services, including SOL trade execution, from time to time
as requested by the Sponsor. The Trust may engage in purchases or sales of SOL
by placing orders with Coinbase. Coinbase will route orders placed by the
Sponsor through Coinbase’s execution platform to a Connected Trading Venue where
the order will be executed. Each order placed with Coinbase by the Sponsor will
be sent, processed and settled at each Connected Trading Venue to which it is
routed. Subject to the foregoing, and to certain policies and procedures that
the Solana Custody Agreement requires Coinbase to have in place to mitigate
conflicts of interest when executing the Trust’s orders, the Solana Custody
Agreement provides that Coinbase shall have no liability, obligation, or
responsibility whatsoever for the selection or performance of any Connected
Trading Venue, and that other Connected Trading Venues and/or trading platforms
not used by Coinbase may offer better prices and/or lower costs than the
Connected Trading Venue used to execute the Trust’s orders.
Orders to sell SOL on
behalf of the Trust may be executed by Coinbase at venues that have been
approved in accordance with the Coinbase’s due diligence and risk assessment
process. Due diligence includes reviews conducted by the legal, compliance,
security, privacy and finance/credit-risk teams for every trading venue that
Coinbase’s multi-venue execution capability connects to, helping ensure that the
Coinbase only partners with secure and compliant liquidity partners. Coinbase
also adheres to a maximum amount of assets that can ever be held on a venue,
which is unique for each venue based on Coinbase’s venue diligence and
continually refreshed.
Coinbase may execute
orders as an agent on behalf of the Trust. Coinbase does not operate a dealer
and does not trade against its clients–all orders are routed to the venues
listed above based on a variety of routing criteria, including pricing,
liquidity and depth of order book.
Custody
of the Trust’s Cash
The Trust generally does
not intend to hold cash or cash equivalents. However, the Trust may hold cash
and cash equivalents on a temporary basis to pay expenses or in connection with
cash creation and redemption transactions. The Trust has entered into the Cash
Custody Agreement with BNYM under which BNYM acts as custodian of the Trust’s
cash and cash equivalents, if any.
THE
PRIME BROKER
Pursuant to the Solana
Custody Agreement, a portion of the Trust’s SOL holdings and cash holdings from
time to time may be held with the Prime Broker, an affiliate of the Solana
Custodian, in the Trading Balance,
in connection with the
creation and redemption of Shares via cash transactions or to pay for Trust
expenses not assumed by the Sponsor in consideration for the Sponsor Fee. The
Trust, however, intends to conduct its regular SOL transactions, including in
connection with paying the Trust’s expenses, directly from the Trust’s Prime
Custody Vault over the counter with counterparties selected by the Execution
Agent. If the Sponsor or the Execution Agent determines to transact with the
Prime Broker, the amount of SOL that may be held in the Trading Balance will be
limited to the amount necessary to process a given creation or redemption
transaction, as applicable, or to pay for Trust expenses not assumed by the
Sponsor in consideration for the Sponsor Fee.
The Sponsor may, in its
sole discretion, add or terminate prime brokers at any time. The Sponsor may, in
its sole discretion, change the Prime Broker for the Trust, but it will have no
obligation whatsoever to do so or to seek any particular terms for the Trust
from other such prime brokers.
These periodic holdings
held in the Trading Balance with the Prime Broker represent an omnibus claim on
the Prime Broker’s SOL held on behalf of clients; these holdings exist across a
combination of omnibus hot wallets, omnibus cold wallets or in accounts in the
Prime Broker’s name on a Connected Trading Venue.
The Prime Broker is not
required by the Solana Custody Agreement to hold any of the SOL in the Trust’s
Trading Balance in cold storage or to hold any such SOL in a segregated account,
and neither the Trust nor the Sponsor can control the method by which the Prime
Broker holds the SOL credited to the Trust’s Trading Balance. SOL in the Trust’s
Trading Balance is held in FBO omnibus trading accounts subject to robust
accounting controls in order to ensure that the beneficial interest of the
Trust’s assets are properly ledgered at all times.
The Solana Custody
Agreement contains an agreement by the parties to treat the SOL credited to the
Trust’s Trading Balance as financial assets under Article 8 of the New York
Uniform Commercial Code (“Article 8”). Article 8 provides additional protection
for the Trust’s SOL in the Trading Balance by creating a security entitlement in
favor of the Trust while imposing various duties on the Prime Broker. The Prime
Broker’s parent, Coinbase Global, has stated in its most recent public
securities filings that in light of the inclusion in its custody agreements of
provisions relating to Article 8 it believes that a court would not treat
custodied digital assets as part of its general estate in the event the Prime
Broker were to experience insolvency. However, due to the novelty of digital
asset custodial arrangements courts have not yet considered this type of
treatment for custodied digital assets and it is not possible to predict with
certainty how they would rule in such a scenario.
To the extent the Trust
sells SOL through the Prime Broker, the Trust’s orders will be executed at
Connected Trading Venues that have been approved in accordance with the Prime
Broker’s due diligence and risk assessment process. The Prime Broker has
represented that its due diligence on Connected Trading Venues include reviews
conducted by the legal, compliance, security, privacy and finance and
credit-risk teams.
In the event the Sponsor,
on behalf of the Trust, places an order to purchase or sell SOL on the Trading
Platform in connection with the creation or redemption of Shares via a cash
transaction, the associated SOL or cash used to fund or fill the order, if any,
will be placed on hold and will generally not be eligible for other use or
withdrawal from the Trust’s Trading Balance. The Trust’s Vault Balance may be
used directly to fund orders. With each Connected Trading Venue, the Prime
Broker shall establish an account in the Prime Broker’s name, or in its name for
the benefit of clients, to trade on behalf of its clients, including the Trust,
and the Trust will not, by virtue of the Trading Balance the Trust maintains
with the Prime Broker, have a direct legal relationship, or account with, any
Connected Trading Venue.
In any SOL transactions
between an Authorized Participant, the Solana Custodian and the Prime Broker,
the Authorized Participant will be responsible for any fees associated with SOL
transactions.
Either the Trust or the
Prime Broker may terminate the Solana Custody Agreement in its entirety for any
reason and without Cause (as defined below) by providing at least ninety
(90) days’ prior written notice to the other party.
The Prime Broker and the
Solana Custodian may, in their sole discretion, suspend, restrict or terminate
the Trust’s prime broker services, including by suspending, restricting or
closing any account of the Trust covered under the Solana Custody Agreement for
Cause, at any time and with prior notice to the Trust.
For purposes of the Solana
Custody Agreement, “Cause” shall mean: (i) a default occurs and is continuing
with respect to Trust; (ii) the Trust materially breaches this Prime Broker
Agreement, including any agreement, exhibit, appendix, addendum, policy
referenced herein, or supplement attached hereto, and, to the extent capable of
remedy, such breach is not cured within five business days following written
notice from the Prime Broker to the Trust of such breach; (iii) a requirement of
a facially valid subpoena, court order, or binding order of a government
authority; (iv) The Trust’s account with the Prime Broker is subject to any
pending litigation, investigation, or government proceeding and/or the Prime
Broker reasonably perceives a heightened risk of legal or regulatory
non-compliance associated with the Trust’s use of the Prime Broker services; or
(v) the Prime Broker reasonably suspects the Trust of attempting to circumvent
the Prime Broker’s controls or uses the Prime Broker services in a manner the
Prime Broker otherwise deems inappropriate or potentially harmful to itself or
third parties.
A decision by the Prime
Broker or the Solana Custodian to take certain actions, including suspending,
restricting or terminating the Trust’s accounts covered under the Solana Custody
Agreement, may be based on confidential criteria that are essential to the Prime
Broker’s risk management and security practices and agrees that the Prime Broker
and the Solana Custodian are under no obligation to disclose the details of its
risk management and security practices to the Trust.
Pursuant to the Solana
Custody Agreement, the Trust compensates the Prime Broker through (i) a
“Settlement Fee” assessed per settlement in the Trust’s Trading Balance, (ii) a
“Primer Broker Custody ETP Services Fee” assessed as a tiered rate of the
Trust’s assets under custody in its custodial account, and (iii) a “Trading
Account Fee” assessed as a fixed percentage rate of each executed order. The
Prime Broker will invoice the Trust for the Settlement Fee and the Prime Broker
Custody ETP Services Fee on a monthly basis and the Trust shall pay all amounts
to the Prime Broker within 30 days of the Trust’s receipt of an invoice for such
fees.
The parent company of the
Solana Custodian and Prime Broker, Coinbase Global, maintains a commercial crime
insurance policy, which is intended to cover the loss of client assets held by
Coinbase Global and all of its subsidiaries, including the Coinbase Insureds.
This policy covers the loss of client assets held by the Solana Custodian and
Prime Broker, including from employee collusion or fraud, physical loss
including theft, damage of key material, security breach or hack and fraudulent
transfer. The insurance maintained by the Coinbase Insureds is shared among all
of their customers, is not specific to the Trust or to customers holding SOL
with the Solana Custodian or Prime Broker and may not be available or sufficient
to protect the Trust from all possible losses or sources of losses.
Under the Solana Custody
Agreement, the Prime Broker’s liability is limited in the following respects,
among others: (i) other than with respect to claims and losses arising from
fraud or willful misconduct, the Prime Broker’s aggregate liability under the
Solana Custody Agreement shall not exceed the greater of (A) the aggregate fees
paid by the Trust to the Prime Broker in the 12 months prior to the event giving
rise to the Prime Broker’s liability, and (B) the value of the affected SOL
giving rise to the Prime Broker’s liability; (ii) the Prime Broker’s aggregate
liability in respect of each cold storage address shall not exceed $100 million;
and (iii) in respect of any incidental, indirect, special, punitive,
consequential or similar losses, the Prime Broker is not liable, even if the
Prime Broker has been advised of or knew or should have known of
the possibility thereof.
Both the Trust and the Prime Broker and its affiliates (including the Solana
Custodian) are required to indemnify each other under certain circumstances. The
Solana Custody Agreement is governed by New York law and provides that disputes
arising under it are subject to arbitration.
FORM OF
SHARES
Registered
Form
Shares are issued in
registered form in accordance with the Trust Agreement. The Transfer Agent has
been appointed registrar and transfer agent for the purpose of transferring
Shares in certificated form. The Transfer Agent keeps a record of all
Shareholders and holders of the Shares in certified form in the registry. The
Sponsor recognizes transfers of Shares in certificated form only if done in
accordance with the Trust Agreement. The beneficial interests in such Shares are
held in book-entry form through participants and/or accountholders in DTC.
Book
Entry
Individual certificates
are not issued for the Shares. Instead, Shares are represented by one or more
global certificates, which are deposited by the Transfer Agent on behalf of the
Trust with DTC and registered in the name of Cede & Co., as nominee for DTC.
The global certificates evidence all of the Shares outstanding at any time.
Shareholders are limited to (1) participants in DTC such as banks, brokers,
dealers and trust companies (“DTC Participants”), (2) those who maintain, either
directly or indirectly, a custodial relationship with a DTC Participant
(“Indirect Participants”) and (3) those who hold interests in the Shares through
DTC Participants or Indirect Participants, in each case who satisfy the
requirements for transfers of Shares. DTC Participants acting on behalf of
Shareholders holding Shares through such participants’ accounts in DTC will
follow the delivery practice applicable to securities eligible for DTC’s
Same-Day Funds Settlement System. Shares are credited to DTC Participants’
securities accounts following confirmation of receipt of payment.
DTC
The Trust understands that
DTC is a limited purpose trust company organized under the laws of the State of
New York and is a member of the Federal Reserve System, a “clearing corporation”
within the meaning of the New York Uniform Commercial Code and a “clearing
agency” registered pursuant to the provisions of Section 17A of the Exchange
Act. DTC holds securities for DTC Participants and facilitates the clearance and
settlement of transactions between DTC Participants through electronic
book-entry changes in accounts of DTC Participants.
TRANSFER
OF SHARES
The Shares are only
transferable through the book-entry system of DTC. Shareholders who are not DTC
Participants may transfer their Shares through DTC by instructing the DTC
Participant holding their Shares (or by instructing the Indirect Participant or
other entity through which their Shares are held) to transfer the Shares.
Transfers are made in accordance with standard securities industry
practice.
Transfers of interests in
Shares with DTC are made in accordance with the usual rules and operating
procedures of DTC and the nature of the transfer. DTC has established procedures
to facilitate transfers among the participants and/or accountholders of DTC.
Because DTC can only act on behalf of DTC Participants, who in turn act on
behalf of Indirect Participants, the ability of a person or entity having an
interest in a global certificate to pledge such interest to persons or entities
that do not participate in DTC,
or otherwise take actions
in respect of such interest, may be affected by the lack of a certificate or
other definitive document representing such interest.
The Trust understands that
DTC will take any action permitted to be taken by a Shareholder (including,
without limitation, the presentation of a global certificate for exchange) only
at the direction of one or more DTC Participants in whose account with DTC
interests in global certificates are credited and only in respect of such
portion of the aggregate principal amount of the global certificate as to which
such DTC Participant or Participants has or have given such direction.
PLAN OF
DISTRIBUTION
Buying
and Selling Shares
Most investors buy and
sell Shares of the Trust in secondary market transactions through brokers.
Shares trade on the Exchange under the ticker symbol QSOL. Shares are bought and
sold throughout the trading day like other publicly traded securities. When
buying or selling Shares through a broker, most investors incur customary
brokerage commissions and charges, as well as any bid-ask spread. Shareholders
are encouraged to review the terms of their brokerage account for details on
applicable charges.
Authorized
Participants
The offering of Shares is
a best efforts offering. The Trust continuously offers Creation Baskets
consisting of 5,000 Shares to Authorized Participants. Authorized Participants
may pay (i) a transaction fee and (ii) the Custody Transaction Fee for each
order they place to create or redeem Creation Baskets.
The offering of Shares is
being made in compliance with Rule 2310 of the FINRA Rules. Accordingly,
Authorized Participants will not make any sales to any account over which they
have discretionary authority without the prior written approval of a purchaser
of Shares. An Authorized Participant is not required to sell any specific number
or dollar amount of Shares.
By executing an Authorized
Participant Agreement, an Authorized Participant becomes part of the group of
parties eligible to purchase Creation Baskets from, and have Creation Baskets
redeemed by, the Trust. An Authorized Participant is under no obligation to
create or redeem Creation Baskets or to offer to the public any Shares it does
create. A broker-dealer participating in the distribution of Shares may be
deemed to be an “underwriter” within the meaning of Section 2(a)(11) of the 1933
Act, in connection with such sales.
Because new Shares can be
created and issued on an ongoing basis, at any point during the life of the
Trust, a “distribution,” as such term is used in the Securities Act, will be
occurring. Authorized Participants, other broker-dealers and other persons are
cautioned that some of their activities may result in their being deemed
participants in a distribution in a manner that would render them statutory
underwriters and subject them to the prospectus delivery and liability
provisions of the Securities Act. Any purchaser who purchases Shares with a view
towards distribution of such Shares may be deemed to be a statutory underwriter.
In addition, an Authorized Participant, other broker-dealer firm or its client
will be deemed a statutory underwriter if it purchases a Creation Basket from
the Trust, breaks the Creation Basket down into the constituent Shares and sells
the Shares to its customers; or if it chooses to couple its purchases of Shares
from the Trust with an active selling effort involving solicitation of secondary
market demand for the Shares. In contrast, Authorized Participants may engage in
secondary market or other transactions in Shares that would not be deemed
“underwriting.” For example, an Authorized Participant may act in the capacity
of a broker or dealer with respect to Shares that were previously distributed by
other Authorized Participants. A determination of whether a particular market
participant is an underwriter must take into account all the
facts and circumstances
pertaining to the activities of the broker-dealer or its client in the
particular case, and the examples mentioned above should not be considered a
complete description of all the activities that would lead to designation as an
underwriter and subject them to the prospectus delivery and liability provisions
of the Securities Act.
Dealers who are neither
Authorized Participants nor “underwriters” but are nonetheless participating in
a distribution (as contrasted to ordinary secondary trading transactions), and
thus dealing with Shares that are part of an “unsold allotment” within the
meaning of Section 4(a)(3)(C) of the Securities Act, would be unable to take
advantage of the prospectus delivery exemption provided by Section 4(a)(3) of
the Securities Act.
While the Authorized
Participants may be indemnified by the Sponsor, they will not be entitled to
receive a discount or commission from the Trust or the Sponsor for their
purchases of Creation Baskets.
Seed
Capital Investor; Selling Shareholders
The Trust was seeded
with $100,000 on October 16, 2025, through the sale of 4,000 Shares at a
per-Share price of $25.00 (the “Initial Seed Shares”) by the Trust to Invesco
Ltd. Invesco Ltd. is expected to purchase five initial seed creation baskets,
equal to 25,000 shares, before the Trust is listed on the Exchange at a price
per Share based on the Benchmark price as of 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the date
of the transaction (the “Seed Creation Baskets”). The Initial Seed Shares will
be redeemed for cash prior to the purchase of the Seed Creation Baskets. Invesco
Ltd. (“Invesco” has acted as a statutory underwriter in connection with its
purchase of the applicable shares. Invesco may sell some or all of the shares
underlying its purchases pursuant to the registration statement for the Trust
(Invesco Ltd., in such role, the “Selling Shareholder”), which shares have been
registered to permit the resale from time to time after purchase. The Selling
Shareholder may make a public offering of the Shares held by it at a price per
Share that will depend, among other factors, on the net asset value per Share
and the trading price of Shares on the Exchange at the time of the offer. The
price of Shares offered by the Selling Shareholder was acquired by the Selling
Shareholder as described in the registration statement, and could be sold at
different times and at different offering prices. The Trust will not receive any
of the proceeds from the resale by the Selling Shareholder of these shares. The
Selling Shareholder will not receive any fee or other compensation from the
Sponsor in connection with the sale of the Shares. Prior to this offering,
pursuant to this Prospectus, there has been no public market for the Shares. The
Shares are expected to be listed for trading, subject to notice of issuance, on
the Exchange under the ticker symbol QSOL. Investing in the Trust involves risks
similar to those involved with an investment directly in SOL, as well as other
significant risks.
It is anticipated that the
Seed Capital Investor will redeem the Seed Capital Baskets or sell its shares to
a third party in the weeks following the initial listing of Shares on the
Exchange, if third-party investments in the Trust exceed the value of the Seed
Capital Investor’s entire investment. The Seed Capital Investor may sell some or
all of the shares underlying the Seed Creation Baskets held by it pursuant to
the registration statement for the Trust (the Seed Capital Investor in such
role, the “Selling Shareholder”), which shares have been registered to permit
the resale from time to time after purchase. The Trust will not receive any of
the proceeds of the redemption of any Seed Creation Baskets by the Seed Capital
Investor or from the resale by the Selling Shareholder of its shares. The Seed
Capital Investor will not receive any fee or other compensation from the Sponsor
in connection with the sale of the Seed Capital Baskets.
The Selling Shareholder
may sell Shares owned by it directly or through broker-dealers, in accordance
with applicable law, on any national securities exchange on which the Shares may
be listed or quoted at the time of sale, through trading systems, in the OTC
market or in transactions other than on these exchanges or systems at fixed
prices, at prevailing market prices at the time of the sale, at varying prices
determined at the time of sale, or at negotiated prices. These sales may be
effected through brokerage transactions,
privately negotiated
trades, block sales, entry into options or other derivatives transactions or
through any other means authorized by applicable law. The Selling Shareholder
may redeem Shares held in Creation Basket size through an Authorized
Participant.
CREATION
AND REDEMPTION OF SHARES
The Trust creates and
redeems Shares from time to time, but only in one or more Creation Baskets. The
value of Creation Baskets are based on the quantity of SOL attributable to each
Share of the Trust (net of accrued but unpaid Sponsor fees and any accrued but
unpaid expenses or liabilities) being created or redeemed determined as of 4:00
p.m. ET on the Business Day the order to create or redeem Creation Baskets is
properly received. Creation and redemption transactions will be conducted
in exchange for SOL in-kind or cash.
When purchasing Creation
Baskets in-kind with SOL, Authorized Participants and/or their
designees will deliver SOL to the Solana Custodian. After confirming receipt of
the SOL by the Solana Custodian, the Transfer Agent is authorized by the Sponsor
to issue Creation Baskets of Shares to the creating Authorized Participant in
satisfaction of the creation order.
When purchasing Creation
Baskets for cash, Authorized Participants will deliver cash to the Cash
Custodian. The Execution Agent will be responsible for acquiring the requisite
amount of SOL on behalf of the Trust on an agency basis on the value date of the
order. Once the Execution Agent selects a Solana Counterparty, the Cash
Custodian will transfer cash to the Solana Counterparty in payment for the
requisite amount of SOL. The SOL acquired from the Solana Counterparty will be
transferred to the Solana Custodian. After receipt of the SOL by the Solana
Custodian, the Transfer Agent will issue Creation Baskets of Shares to the
creating Authorized Participant in satisfaction of the creation order.
When redeeming Creation
Baskets in-kind for SOL, the Transfer Agent will redeem the Shares and
the Solana Custodian will distribute the resulting SOL to the redeeming
Authorized Participant and/or its designee in satisfaction of the redemption
order.
When redeeming Creation
Baskets for cash, the Execution Agent will be responsible for selling the
requisite amount of SOL on behalf of the Trust on an agency basis. Once the
Execution Agent selects a Solana Counterparty, the Solana Custodian will
transfer SOL to the Solana Counterparty in return for the requisite cash
payment. The cash received from the Solana Counterparty will be delivered to the
Cash Custodian. After receipt of the cash payment, the Transfer Agent will
redeem the Shares and the Cash Custodian will distribute the resulting cash to
the redeeming Authorized Participant in satisfaction of the redemption
order.
The Sponsor recognizes
that the size of the Creation Baskets may impact the effectiveness of the
arbitrage mechanism of the Trust’s creation and redemption process, and
accordingly may adjust the size of the Creation Baskets to enhance the
activities of the Authorized Participants in the secondary market for the
Trust’s shares.
Authorized Participants
are the only persons that may place orders to create and redeem Creation
Baskets. Authorized Participants must be: (1) registered broker-dealers or other
securities market participants, such as banks or other financial institutions,
that are not required to register as broker-dealers to engage in securities
transactions as described below, and (2) DTC Participants. To become an
Authorized Participant, a person must enter into an Authorized Participant
Agreement. The Authorized Participant Agreement provides the procedures for the
creation and redemption of Shares. The delivery of SOL to or from the Trust in
connection with creation and redemption transactions, may settle on the Solana
network and is thus subject to the risks associated with Solana network
transactions, including the irreversibility of transactions made in error. The
Authorized Participant Agreement and the related procedures attached thereto may
be
amended by the Trust and
the Sponsor, without the consent of any Shareholder or Authorized Participant.
Authorized Participants will pay (i) a transaction fee and (ii) Custody
Transaction Fee for each order they place to create or redeem Shares. The
transaction fee may be reduced, increased or otherwise changed by the Trust and
the Sponsor. Authorized Participants receive no fees, commissions or other form
of compensation or inducement of any kind from either the Trust or the Sponsor,
and no such person will have any obligation or responsibility to the Sponsor or
the Trust to effect any sale or resale of Shares.
Certain Authorized
Participants or their affiliates may be capable of participating directly in the
spot markets. Some Authorized Participants or their affiliates may from time to
time buy or sell SOL and may profit in these instances. See “Risk Factors—Risks
Related to the Trust and the Shares—The Sponsor and its affiliates are subject
to conflicts of interest that could adversely affect your investment in the
Trust.” To the extent that the activities of Authorized Participants or their
affiliates have a meaningful effect on the Solana market, it could affect the
price of SOL and impact the ability of the Authorized Participants or their
affiliates to effectively arbitrage the difference between the price at which
the shares trade and the NAV of the Trust’s Shares. While the Sponsor currently
expects that Authorized Participants’ or their affiliates direct activities in
the Solana or the secondary market in connection with the creation and
redemption activities of the Trust will not significantly affect the price of
SOL or the Shares, the impact of the activities of the Trust and its Authorized
Participants on SOL or the secondary market is unknown and beyond the control of
the Sponsor.
Each Authorized
Participant will be required to be registered as a broker-dealer under the
Exchange Act and a member in good standing with FINRA, or exempt from being or
otherwise not required to be licensed as a broker-dealer or a member of FINRA,
and will be qualified to act as a broker or dealer in the states or other
jurisdictions where the nature of its business so requires. Certain Authorized
Participants may also be regulated under federal and state banking laws and
regulations. Each Authorized Participant has its own set of rules and
procedures, internal controls and information barriers as it determines is
appropriate in light of its own regulatory regime.
The following description
of the procedures for the creation and redemption of Creation Baskets is only a
summary and a Shareholder should refer to the relevant provisions of the form of
Authorized Participant Agreement for more detail. The form of Authorized
Participant Agreement is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of
which this Prospectus is a part.
Creations and redemptions
may be “off-chain” transactions that are represented in the books and records of
the Prime Broker or “on-chain” transactions reflected in the Trust’s Prime
Custody Vault Account. The creating or redeeming Authorized Participant will be
responsible for any on-chain transaction fees, as well as any transaction fees
imposed by the Trust and any transaction charges imposed by the Execution Agent
in connection with acquiring or disposing of SOL in connection with creation or
redemption transactions.
Authorized Participants
will place orders through the Transfer Agent. The Transfer Agent will coordinate
with the Trust’s Solana Custodian in order to facilitate settlement of the
Shares and cash and/or SOL as described in more detail in the “—Creation
Procedures” and “—Redemption Procedures” sections below.
Creation
Procedures
On any Business Day, an
Authorized Participant may place an order through the Transfer Agent’s
electronic order delivery system to create one or more Creation Baskets. The
Transfer Agent will acknowledge the purchase order unless the Trustee or the
Sponsor decides to refuse the deposit as described below under “Rejection of
Purchase Orders.” For cash creations orders to purchase Shares (“Purchase
Orders”) must be placed by 2:30 p.m. ET or the close of regular trading on the
Exchange, whichever is earlier (the “Cash Order Cutoff Time”). For in-kind
creations, Purchase Orders must be placed by 4:00 p.m. or the close of
regular trading on the
Exchange, whichever is earlier (the In-Kind Order Cutoff Time”). The day on
which a valid order is received by the Transfer Agent is considered the
“Purchase Order Date.”
The Sponsor may in its
sole discretion limit the number of Shares created pursuant to Purchase Orders
on any specified day without providing notice to the Authorized Participants and
may direct the Transfer Agent to reject any Purchase Orders in excess of such
capped amount. The Sponsor may choose to limit the number of Shares created
pursuant to Purchase Orders when it deems so doing to be in the best interest of
Shareholders. The Sponsor may choose to do so when it believes the market is too
volatile to execute a SOL transaction, when it believes the price of SOL is
being inconsistently, irregularly, or discontinuously published from SOL trading
venues and other data sources, or when it believes other similar circumstances
may create a scenario in which accepting Purchase Orders would not be in the
best interests of the Shareholders. The Sponsor does not believe that the
Trust’s ability to arrive at such a determination will have a significant impact
on the Shares in the secondary market because it believes that the ability to
create Shares would be reinstated shortly after such determination is made, and
any entity desiring to create Shares would be able to do so once the ability to
create Shares is reinstated. However, it is possible that such a determination
would cause the Shares to trade at premiums or discounts relative to the Trust’s
NAV on the secondary market if arbitrageurs believe that there is risk that the
creation and redemption process is not available, as this process is a component
of keeping the price of the Shares on the secondary market closely aligned to
the Trust’s NAV.
If the Trustee accepts the
Purchase Order, the Transfer Agent will transmit to the Authorized Participant,
via electronic mail message or other electronic communication, no later than
5:00 p.m. ET on the date such Purchase Order is received, or deemed received, a
copy of the Purchase Order endorsed “Accepted” by the Transfer Agent and
indicating the Creation Basket Deposit that the Authorized Participant must
deliver to the Solana Custodian or Prime Broker in exchange for each Creation
Basket. In the case of Purchase Orders submitted via the Transfer Agent’s
electronic order entry system, the Authorized Participant will receive an
automated email indicating the acceptance of the Purchase Order and the Purchase
Order will be marked “Accepted” in the Transfer Agent’s electronic order entry
system. Prior to the Transfer Agent’s acceptance as specified above, a Purchase
Order will only represent the Authorized Participant’s unilateral offer to
deposit the requisite amount of SOL or cash in exchange for Creation Baskets and
will have no binding effect upon the Trust, the Sponsor, the Trust
Administrator, the Transfer Agent, the Solana Custodian or any other
party.
If required by the Sponsor
and the Trust, prior to the delivery of Creation Baskets for a Purchase Order,
the Authorized Participant must have wired to the Transfer Agent the
nonrefundable transaction fee due for the Purchase Order. Authorized
Participants may not withdraw a Purchase Order.
The manner by which
Creation Baskets are made is dictated by the terms of the Authorized Participant
Agreement. By placing a Purchase Order, an Authorized Participant agrees to
facilitate the deposit of the requisite amount of SOL or cash with the Trust’s
Solana Custodian or Cash Custodian, respectively. If an Authorized Participant
fails to consummate the foregoing, the Purchase Order will be cancelled. For
cash creation transactions, the Execution Agent will be responsible for
acquiring the requisite amount of SOL on behalf of the Trust.
The Sponsor and Transfer
Agent shall reject any purchase order or redemption order that is not in proper
form. Upon receipt of the SOL deposit amount in the Trust’s Solana account, the
Solana Custodian will notify the Transfer Agent, the Authorized Participant and
the Sponsor that the SOL has been deposited. The Transfer Agent will then direct
DTC to credit the number of Shares created to the Authorized Participant’s DTC
account.
SOL transactions that
occur on the blockchain are susceptible to delays due to Solana network outage,
congestion, spikes in transaction fees demanded by validators, or other problems
or disruptions. To the extent that SOL transfers from the Trust’s Trading
Balance to the Trust’s Prime Custody Vault are delayed due to congestion or
other issues with the Solana network, such SOL will not be held in cold storage
in the Prime Custody Vault until such transfers can occur.
Cash
Creation Transaction
The total cash deposit
required to create each cash Creation Basket is an amount of cash equivalent to
the amount of SOL described below in the subsection entitled “Determination of
Required Deposits,” plus any amount above the Benchmark on each Purchase Order
Date that the Trust agrees to pay in order to acquire the required amount of SOL
as described in the subsection entitled “Determination of Required Deposits.”
The Sponsor causes to be published each night the amount of SOL that will be
acquired in exchange for each Purchase Order, from which can be computed the
estimated amount of cash required to create each cash Creation Basket, prior to
accounting for any additional cash required to acquire the requisite amount of
SOL if the price paid by the Trust is in excess of the Benchmark on each
Purchase Order Date.
When purchasing Creation
Baskets for cash, Authorized Participants will deliver cash to the Cash
Custodian. The Execution Agent will be responsible for acquiring the requisite
amount of SOL on behalf of the Trust on an agency basis. Once the Execution
Agent selects a Solana Counterparty, the Cash Custodian will transfer cash to
the Solana Counterparty in payment for the requisite amount of SOL. The SOL
acquired from the Solana Counterparty will be transferred to the Solana
Custodian. After receipt of the SOL by the Solana Custodian, the Transfer Agent
will issue Creation Baskets of Shares to the creating Authorized Participant in
satisfaction of the creation order.
The Execution Agent,
pursuant to the oversight of the Sponsor, will decide how and with which Solana
Counterparty to transact on the Trust’s behalf.
As between the Trust and
the Authorized Participant, the expense and risk of the difference between the
value of SOL calculated by the Administrator for daily valuation using the
Benchmark and the price at which the Trust acquires the SOL will be borne solely
by the Authorized Participant to the extent that the Trust pays more for SOL
than the price used by the Trust for daily valuation. Any such additional cash
amount will be included in the amount of cash calculated by the Administrator on
the Purchase Order Date (identified as a variable transaction fee), communicated
to the Authorized Participant on the Purchase Order Date, and wired by the
Authorized Participant to the Cash Custodian on the day following the Purchase
Order Date. If the Solana Counterparty fails to deliver the SOL to the Solana
Custodian, no cash is sent from the Cash Custodian to the Solana Counterparty,
no Shares are transferred to the Authorized Participant’s DTC account, the cash
is returned to the Authorized Participant, and the Cash Purchase Order is
cancelled.
In-Kind Creation
Transactions
The total amount of SOL
required to be deposited by an Authorized Participant and/or its designee to
create each in-kind Creation Basket is described below in the
subsection entitled “Determination of Required Deposits.” The Sponsor causes to
be published each night the amount of SOL that will be acquired in exchange for
each Purchase Order.
When purchasing Creation
Baskets in-kind for SOL, Authorized Participants and/or their
designees will deposit SOL related to the Authorized Participant’s purchase
order with the Solana Custodian. After receipt of the SOL by the Solana
Custodian, the Transfer Agent will issue Creation Baskets of Shares to the
creating Authorized Participant in satisfaction of the creation order.
Determination
of Required Deposits
The quantity of SOL
required to create each Creation Basket (“Creation Basket Deposit”) changes from
day to day. On each day that the Exchange is open for regular trading, the
Sponsor will publish the Creation Basket after market close, which is composed
of an amount of SOL or an amount of cash and/or SOL required to purchase a
Creation Basket the following day. After the Trust’s NAV is struck on a Business
Day, the Administrator adjusts the quantity of SOL constituting the Creation
Basket Deposit for the next Business Day as appropriate to reflect accrued
expenses. The computation is made by the Administrator as promptly as
practicable after 4:00 p.m. ET. The Administrator calculates the Creation Basket
Deposit for a given day by multiplying the NAV by the number of Shares in a
Creation Basket (5,000) divided by the price of SOL at 4:00 p.m. ET as
determined consistent with the Benchmark to determine the cash amount required
for a Creation Basket. Fractions of a SOL smaller than 0.00000001 are
disregarded for purposes of the computation of the Creation Basket Deposit.
Although the Administrator applies the SOL price to the calculation of the
Creation Basket value, the Administrator plays no role in the determination of
the SOL price used by the Trust; rather the SOL price used in calculating the
cash value of a Creation Basket is identical to the SOL price used in
determining the Trust’s NAV.
Each Business Day, the
Sponsor will communicate the final Creation Basket Deposit for that same
Business Day and an estimated Creation Basket Deposit for the next Business Day.
The Creation Basket Deposit so determined is communicated daily via electronic
mail message to all Authorized Participants. Authorized Participants may use the
value of the SOL in the Creation Basket to estimate the amount of cash needed
for a Purchase Order.
The date the Transfer
Agent receives a valid Purchase Order will determine the Creation Basket Deposit
the Authorized Participant needs to deposit. However, Purchase Orders received
by the Transfer Agent after 2:30 p.m. ET with respect to cash creation
transactions and 4:00 p.m. ET with respect to in-kind creation transaction (or
the close of regular trading on the Exchange, whichever is earlier) will be
rejected and should be resubmitted on the following Business Day.
For cash creation
transactions, to the extent there is a difference between the price actually
paid by the Trust to acquire a Creation Basket worth of SOL in the creation
process compared to the cash value of the Creation Basket (i.e., if there is a
difference between the amount paid by the Execution Agent on behalf of the Trust
to purchase the requisite amount of SOL and the valuation of SOL as part of the
Trust’s NAV calculation), that difference will also be charged to the creating
Authorized Participant in the form of a variable fee.
Delivery of
Required Deposits
An Authorized Participant
who places a Purchase Order must follow the procedures outlined in the
“—Creation Procedures” section above. When purchasing Creation Baskets for cash,
Authorized Participants will deliver cash to the Cash Custodian. The Execution
Agent will be responsible for acquiring the requisite amount of SOL on behalf of
the Trust on an agency basis. Once the Execution Agent selects a Solana
Counterparty, the Cash Custodian will transfer cash to the Solana Counterparty
in payment for the requisite amount of SOL. The SOL acquired from the Solana
Counterparty will be transferred to the Solana Custodian. After receipt of the
SOL by the Solana Custodian, the Solana Custodian will notify the Sponsor and
the Transfer Agent that the SOL has been received, and the Transfer Agent will
direct DTC to credit
the number of Creation
Baskets ordered to an Authorized Participant’s DTC account on the next Business
Day following the Purchase Order Date.
When purchasing Creation
Baskets in-kind with SOL, Authorized Participants and/or their designees deliver
SOL to the Solana Custodian. After receipt of the SOL by the Solana Custodian,
the Transfer Agent will direct DTC to credit the number of Creation Baskets
ordered to an Authorized Participant’s DTC account on the next Business Day
following the Purchase Order Date.
The expense and risk of
delivery and ownership of SOL until SOL has been received by the Solana
Custodian on behalf of the Trust, including transaction fees from the Solana
network’s blockchain, will be borne solely by the Authorized Participant. If SOL
is to be delivered to the Trust other than as described above, the Sponsor is
authorized to establish such procedures and to appoint such custodians and
establish such custody accounts as the Sponsor determines to be desirable, or to
reject such Purchase Order or Creation Basket Deposit.
Rejection of
Purchase Orders
The Sponsor or its
designee has the absolute right, but does not have any obligation, to reject any
Purchase Order or Creation Basket Deposit if the Sponsor determines that:
|
• |
the Purchase Order or Creation Basket Deposit is not in proper form
as described in the Authorized Participant
Agreement; |
|
• |
the acceptance of the Purchase Order or Creation Basket Deposit would
not be in the best interest of the Trust; |
|
• |
the acceptance of the Purchase Order or the Creation Basket Deposit
would have adverse tax consequences to the Trust or its
Shareholders; |
|
• |
the acceptance of the Creation Basket Deposit presents a security or
regulatory risk to the Trust, the Sponsor, the Transfer Agent or the
Solana Custodian; |
|
• |
the acceptance or receipt of the Purchase Order or Creation Basket
Deposit would, in the opinion of counsel to the Sponsor, be unlawful;
or |
|
• |
circumstances outside the control of the Trust, the Sponsor or the
Solana Custodian or Cash Custodian make it impractical or not feasible to
process Creations Baskets. |
None of the Sponsor, the
Transfer Agent or the Solana Custodian will be liable for the rejection of any
Purchase Order or Creation Basket Deposit.
Redemption
Procedures
An order to redeem
Creation Baskets is a “Redemption Order.” On any Business Day, an Authorized
Participant may place an order through the Transfer Agent’s electronic order
delivery system to redeem one or more Creation Baskets. The Transfer Agent will
acknowledge the Redemption Order unless the Trustee or the Sponsor decides to
refuse the deposit as described below under “Suspension or Rejection of
Redemption Orders.” For cash redemptions, Redemption Orders must be placed by
the Cash Order Cutoff Time. For in-kind redemptions, Redemption Orders
must be placed by the In-Kind Order Cutoff Time. The day on which a
valid order is received by the Transfer Agent is considered the “Redemption
Order Date.”
When a Redemption Order is
received, the Trust will instruct the Solana Custodian to move the corresponding
amount of SOL from the Trust’s Prime Custody Vault Balance to the Trading
Balance by a
specified time on the
settlement date. Transfers of SOL from the Trust’s Prime Custody Vault Balance
to the Trust’s Trading Balance are “on-chain” transaction represented
on the Solana blockchain.
SOL transactions that
occur on the blockchain are susceptible to delays due to Solana network outages,
congestion, spikes in transaction fees demanded by validators, or other problems
or disruptions. To the extent that SOL transfers from the Trust’s Prime Custody
Vault to the Trust’s Trading Balance are delayed due to congestion or other
issues with the Solana network, redemptions in the Trust could be delayed.
Disruption of services at
the Solana Custodian and/or the Staking Provider would have the potential to
delay settlement of the SOL related to Redemption Orders.
Cash
Redemption Transactions
When redeeming Creation
Baskets for cash, the Execution Agent will be responsible for selling the
requisite amount of SOL on behalf of the Trust on an agency basis. Once the
Execution Agent selects a Solana Counterparty, the Solana Custodian will
transfer SOL to the Solana Counterparty in return for the requisite cash
payment. The cash received from the Solana Counterparty will be delivered to the
Cash Custodian. After receipt of the cash payment, the Transfer Agent will
redeem the Shares and the Cash Custodian will distribute the resulting cash to
the redeeming Authorized Participant in satisfaction of the Redemption Order.
The Execution Agent, pursuant to the oversight of the Sponsor, will decide how
and with which Solana Counterparty to transact on the Trust’s behalf.
In connection with cash
redemption transactions (and, as noted above, cash creation transactions), the
Execution Agent, pursuant to the oversight of the Sponsor, will decide how and
with which Solana Counterparty to transact on the Trust’s behalf. The
Trust will redeem shares by delivering SOL to a third-party that is not the
Authorized Participant and the Trust (through the Execution Agent, on an agency
basis)—not the Authorized Participant—is responsible for selecting the
third-party to receive the SOL. Further, the third-party will not be acting as
an agent of the Authorized Participant with respect to the receipt of the SOL
from the Trust or acting at the direction of the Authorized Participant with
respect to the receipt of the SOL from the Trust.
In-Kind
Redemption Transactions
When redeeming Creation
Baskets for SOL, the Transfer Agent will redeem the Shares and the Solana
Custodian will distribute the resulting SOL to the redeeming Authorized
Participant and/or its designee in satisfaction of the redemption order.
The Trust instructs the
Solana Custodian to prepare to move the associated SOL from the Trust’s Vault
Balance with the Solana Custodian to the Trust’s Trading Balance with the Solana
Custodian. For settlement of a redemption, the Authorized Participant delivers
the necessary Shares to the Trust and the Trustee instructs the Execution Agent
to deliver the resulting SOL to the redeeming Authorized Participant.
Determination
of Redemption Distribution
The redemption
distribution from the Trust will consist of a transfer to the redeeming
Authorized Participant and/or its designee of an amount of SOL or cash that is
determined in the same manner as the determination of Creation Basket Deposits
discussed above.
Delivery of
Redemption Distribution
The redemption
distribution due from the Trust will generally be delivered to the Authorized
Participant within two Business Days following the Redemption Order date if, by
9:00 a.m. ET on such Business Day, the Transfer Agent’s DTC account has been
credited with the Creation Baskets to be redeemed. If the Transfer Agent’s DTC
account has not been credited with all of the Creation Baskets to be redeemed by
such time, the redemption distribution will also be delayed. The expense and
risk of delivery and ownership of SOL in redemption distributions, including
transaction fees from the Solana network’s blockchain, will be borne solely by
the Authorized Participant.
While the Trust generally
intends to reserve sufficient amounts of unstaked SOL to satisfy foreseeable
redemption requests, there may be circumstances in which a Redemption Order
exceeds the amount of unstaked SOL reserved by the Trust. When the Trust
receives such a Redemption Order, the Sponsor will request to un-stake an amount
of staked SOL, as necessary, to satisfy the Redemption Order. Staked SOL is
subject to the Solana network’s cooldown period before it can be transferred or
sold, and the cooldown period is ordinarily around 48 hours. Accordingly,
the Sponsor will typically satisfy these redemption requests within two business
days.
The Solana network
utilizes what is known as an “epoch-based” staking mechanism. When a user on the
Solana network (such as the Sponsor) initiates a request to un-stake, the
request does not take effect immediately. It is queued and only processed at the
end of the epoch. Each epoch on the Solana network lasts approximately two days.
As a result, if the un-stake request is issued just after a new epoch has begun,
the Trust may have to wait nearly a full epoch before its SOL begins
transitioning to an inactive (withdrawable) state. This means the total
un-staking period could extend beyond two days. This could occur as a result of
factors outside of the Trust’s control, such as if the validator that it is
utilizing to stake its SOL is offline, lagging or underperforming and its
un-stake request is not processed at the desired time. Additionally, an extended
cooldown period could occur during periods of uniquely high transaction volume
on the Solana network or general network instability on the Solana network.
Furthermore, if the Solana network undergoes a network upgrade, the cooldown
period for staked Solana could extend beyond two days.
For these, or any other
reason, the Trust’s SOL may not become un-staked in a timely enough fashion to
satisfy Redemption Orders within two business days without taking additional
action.
A circumstance where the
Trust was unable to satisfy Redemption Orders could have significant negative
consequences for the Trust. Disruptions to the Trust’s creation and redemption
mechanism could widen the bid-ask spreads for the Shares or cause Shares to
trade at an increased premium or discount to NAV. If Authorized Participants are
unable to reliably redeem Baskets within the expected timeframe, they may
decline to provide such services to the Trust, which would cause additional
increases in bid-ask spreads and larger premiums and discounts. Furthermore, the
Sponsor and the Trust’s service providers could face reputational and regulatory
scrutiny which could ultimately have a negative impact on the Trust.
Suspension
or Rejection of Redemption Orders
The Sponsor may, in its
discretion, suspend the right of redemption, or postpone the redemption
settlement date, (1) for any period during which the Exchange is closed other
than customary weekend or holiday closings, or trading on the Exchange is
suspended or restricted, (2) for any period during which an emergency exists as
a result of which delivery, disposal or evaluation of SOL is not reasonably
practicable, (3) for such other period as the Sponsor determines to be necessary
for the protection of the Trust or its Shareholders (for example, where
acceptance of the total deposit required to create each Creation Basket would
have certain adverse tax consequences to the Trust or its Shareholders), or (4)
as agreed upon
between the Sponsor and
Authorized Participant. For example, the Sponsor may determine that it is
necessary to suspend redemptions to allow for the orderly liquidation of the
Trust’s assets. An emergency could include situations where the Trust is unable
to transact in SOL or where the Trust is unable to value its SOL holdings. Such
a situation may arise when trading of SOL is suspended on one or more of the
digital asset trading platforms that are included in the Benchmark (for example,
as a result of a significant technical failure, power outage or network error)
or the Trust is unable to access the SOL in the Trust’s SOL custody account at
the Solana Custodian due to technical or operating issues at the Trust or the
Solana Custodian. Because the Trust’s SOL transactions in connection with a cash
redemption transaction are expected to be effected by the Execution Agent
over-the-counter, it is unlikely that the Trust’s SOL transactions in connection
with a cash redemption transaction would be directly impacted by a trading halt
on one or more digital asset trading platforms. However, such disruptions may
have an effect on overall SOL liquidity or cause price spreads of SOL to widen.
None of the Sponsor, the person authorized to take Redemption Orders in the
manner provided in the Authorized Participant Agreement, or the Solana Custodian
will be liable to any person or in any way for any loss or damages that may
result from any such suspension or postponement.
Redemption Orders must be
made in whole Creation Baskets. The Sponsor or its designee has the absolute
right, but does not have any obligation, to reject any Redemption Order if the
Sponsor determines that:
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• |
the Redemption Order is not in proper form as described in the
Authorized Participant Agreement; |
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• |
the acceptance of the Redemption Order would not be in the best
interest of the Trust; |
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• |
the acceptance of the Redemption Order would have adverse tax
consequences to the Trust or its Shareholders; |
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• |
the acceptance of the Redemption Order presents a security risk to
the Trust, the Sponsor, the Transfer Agent or the Solana
Custodian; |
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• |
the acceptance of the Redemption Order would, in the opinion of
counsel to the Sponsor, be unlawful; or |
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• |
circumstances outside the control of the Trust, the Sponsor, or the
Solana Custodian make it impractical or not feasible for the Shares to be
delivered under the Redemption Order. |
The Sponsor may also
reject a Redemption Order if the number of Shares being redeemed would reduce
the remaining outstanding Shares to 100,000 Shares (i.e., 20 Creation Baskets)
or less.
In the event that the
Sponsor intends to suspend or postpone redemptions, it will provide Shareholders
with notice in a prospectus supplement and/or through a current report on Form
8-K or in the Trust’s annual or quarterly reports.
Creation and
Redemption Transaction Fee
To compensate the Transfer
Agent and/or Solana Custodian for expenses incurred in connection with the
creation and redemption of Creation Baskets, an Authorized Participant may be
required to pay a transaction fee to the Transfer Agent and a Custody
Transaction Fee to the Solana Custodian to create or redeem Creation Baskets,
which are not expected to vary in accordance with the number of Creation Baskets
in such order, except to the extent that the fee in connection with a cash
transaction is generally higher than the fee in connection with an in-kind
transaction. The transaction fee may be reduced, increased or otherwise changed
by the Sponsor and the Trust. The Sponsor will notify Authorized Participants of
any change in the transaction fee and will not implement any increase in the fee
for the redemption of Shares until thirty (30) days after the date of notice.
Additionally, for any creation or redemption transaction, to the extent there is
a difference (i) in the case of a creation for cash, between the price actually
paid by the
Trust to acquire a
Creation Basket worth of SOL in the creation process compared to the cash value
of the Creation Basket (i.e., if there is a difference between the amount paid
by the Execution Agent on behalf of the Trust to purchase the requisite amount
of SOL and the valuation of SOL as part of the Trust’s NAV calculation); or (ii)
in the case of a redemption for cash, between the cash proceeds of selling a
Creation Basket worth of SOL in the redemption value compared to the cash value
of the Creation Basket (i.e., if there is a difference between the amount
received by the Trust from a Solana Counterparty in selling the requisite amount
of SOL and the valuation of SOL as part of the Trust’s NAV calculation), that
difference will also be charged to the creating Authorized Participant in the
form of a variable fee.
Tax
Responsibility
Authorized Participants
are responsible for any transfer tax, sales or use tax, stamp tax, recording
tax, value added tax or similar tax or governmental charge applicable to the
creation or redemption of Creation Baskets, regardless of whether or not such
tax or charge is imposed directly on the Authorized Participant, and agree to
indemnify the Sponsor and the Trust if they are required by law to pay any such
tax, together with any applicable penalties, additions to tax and interest
thereon.
Secondary
Market Transactions
As noted, the Trust will
create and redeem Shares from time to time, but only in one or more Creation
Baskets. The creation and redemption of Shares are made in exchange for delivery
to the Trust or the distribution by the Trust of the amount of SOL or cash
determined as described above.
As discussed above,
Authorized Participants are the only persons that may place orders to create and
redeem Creation Baskets. Authorized Participants must be registered
broker-dealers or other securities market participants, such as banks and other
financial institutions that are not required to register as broker-dealers to
engage in securities transactions. An Authorized Participant is under no
obligation to create or redeem Creation Baskets, and an Authorized Participant
is under no obligation to offer to the public any Shares it does create.
Authorized Participants
that do offer to the public Shares from the Creation Baskets they create will do
so at per-Share offering prices that reflect, among other factors, the value of
the Trust’s assets, supply of and demand for Shares and market conditions at the
time of a transaction. Creation Baskets are generally redeemed when the market
price per Share is at a discount to the NAV. Shares initially constituting the
same Creation Basket but offered by Authorized Participants to the public at
different times may have different offering prices. An order for one or more
Creation Baskets may be placed by an Authorized Participant on behalf of
multiple clients. Authorized Participants who make deposits with the Trust in
exchange for Creation Baskets receive no fees, commissions or other forms of
compensation or inducement of any kind from either the Trust or the Sponsor, and
no such person has any obligation or responsibility to the Sponsor to effect any
sale or resale of Shares.
Shares are expected to
trade in the secondary market on the Exchange. Shares may trade in the secondary
market at prices that are lower or higher relative to their NAV. The amount of
the discount or premium in the trading price relative to the NAV may be
influenced by various factors, including the value of the Trust’s assets, supply
and demand for the Shares and market conditions at the time of a
transaction.
USE OF
PROCEEDS
Proceeds received by the
Trust from the issuance of Creation Baskets consist of in-kind SOL and cash
deposits. SOL deposits are held by the Solana Custodian on behalf of the
Trust until (i) delivered to Authorized Participants or their designated agent
or client in connection with an in-kind redemption or sold
in connection with a cash
redemption or (ii) sold to pay the Sponsor’s Fee and Trust expenses of
liabilities not assumed by the Sponsor. Cash deposits are held by the Cash
Custodian on behalf of the Trust until (i) transferred in connection with the
purchase of SOL, (ii) delivered to Authorized Participants in connection with a
redemption of Creation Baskets; or (iii) transferred to pay the Sponsor Fee or
for extraordinary expenses and liabilities not assumed by the Sponsor. Subject
to satisfaction of the Staking Condition and any other applicable
requirements related to the Staking Condition, proceeds may also be used in
staking activities.
OWNERSHIP OR
BENEFICIAL INTEREST IN THE TRUST
The beneficial interest in
the Trust is divided into Shares. Each Share of the Trust represents an equal
beneficial interest in the net assets of the Trust, and each holder of Shares is
entitled to receive such holder’s pro rata share of distributions of income and
capital gains, if any. The Trust will liquidate staking rewards to pay quarterly
distributions to Shareholders.
All Shares are fully paid
and non-assessable. No Share will have any priority or preference over any other
Share of the Trust. All distributions, if any, will be made ratably among all
Shareholders from the assets of the Trust according to the number of Shares held
of record by such Shareholders on the record date for any distribution or on the
date of termination of the Trust, as the case may be. Except as otherwise
provided by the Sponsor, Shareholders will have no preemptive or other right to
subscribe to any additional Shares or other securities issued by the
Trust.
The Sponsor will have full
power and authority, in its sole discretion, without seeking the approval of the
Trustee or the Shareholders (a) to establish and designate and to change in any
manner and to fix such preferences, voting powers, rights, duties and privileges
of the Trust as the Sponsor may from time to time determine, (b) to divide the
beneficial interest in the Trust into an unlimited amount of Shares, with or
without par value, as the Sponsor will determine, (c) to issue Shares without
limitation as to number (including fractional Shares), to such persons and for
such amount of consideration, subject to any restriction set forth in the
By-Laws, if any, at such time or times and on such terms as the Sponsor may deem
appropriate, (d) to divide or combine the Shares into a greater or lesser number
without thereby materially changing the proportionate beneficial interest of the
Shares in the assets held, and (e) to take such other action with respect to the
Shares as the Sponsor may deem desirable. The ownership of Shares will be
recorded on the books of the Trust or the Transfer Agent for the Trust. No
certificates certifying the ownership of Shares will be issued except as the
Sponsor may otherwise determine from time to time. The Sponsor may make such
rules as it considers appropriate for the issuance of Share certificates,
transfer of Shares and similar matters. The record books of the Trust as kept by
the Trust, or the Transfer Agent, as the case may be, will be conclusive as to
the identity of the Shareholders and as to the number of Shares held from time
to time by each.
CONFLICTS OF
INTEREST
There are present and
potential future conflicts of interest in the Trust’s structure and operation
you should consider before you purchase Shares. The Sponsor will use this notice
of conflicts as a defense against any claim or other proceeding made. If the
Sponsor is not able to resolve these conflicts of interest adequately, it may
impact the Trust’s ability to achieve its investment objective.
The officers, directors
and employees of the Sponsor do not devote their time exclusively to the Trust.
These persons are directors, officers or employees of other entities which may
compete with the Trust for their services. They could have a conflict between
their responsibilities to the Trust and to those other entities.
The Sponsor has the
authority to manage the investments and operations of the Trust, and this may
allow it to act in a way that furthers its own interests which may create a
conflict with your best interests. Shareholders have very limited voting rights,
which will limit their ability to influence matters such as amendment of the
Trust Agreement, change in the Trust’s basic investment policy, dissolution of
the Trust, or the sale or distribution of the Trust’s assets.
The Sponsor serves as the
sponsor to the Trust. The Sponsor may have a conflict to the extent that its
trading decisions for the Trust may be influenced by the effect they would have
on other funds its affiliates may manage. In addition, the Sponsor may be
required to indemnify its officers, directors and key employees with respect to
their activities on behalf of other funds, if the need for indemnification
arises. This potential indemnification could cause the Sponsor’s assets to
decrease. If the Sponsor’s other sources of income are not sufficient to
compensate for the indemnification, it could cease operations, which could in
turn result in Trust losses and/or termination of the Trust.
If the Sponsor acquires
knowledge of a potential transaction or arrangement that may be an opportunity
for the Trust, it will have no duty to offer such opportunity to the Trust. The
Sponsor will not be liable to the Trust or the Shareholders for breach of any
fiduciary or other duty if Sponsor pursues such opportunity or directs it to
another person or does not communicate such opportunity to the Trust. Neither
the Trust nor any Shareholder has any rights or obligations by virtue of the
Trust Agreement, the trust relationship created thereby, or this Prospectus in
such business ventures or the income or profits derived from such business
ventures. The pursuit of such business ventures, even if competitive with the
activities of the Trust, will not be deemed wrongful or improper.
The Sponsor, the Prime
Broker, the Execution Agent and their respective affiliates and/or employees may
hold or participate in transactions related to SOL, either for their own account
or for the account of others, such as clients. Such transactions may occur prior
to, during, or after the commencement of this offering. Such transactions may
not serve to benefit the Shareholders of the Trust and may have a positive or
negative effect on the value of the SOL held by the Trust and, consequently, on
the market value of SOL. Because these parties may trade SOL for their own
accounts at the same time as the Trust, prospective Shareholders should be aware
that such persons may take positions in SOL which are opposite, or ahead of, the
positions taken for the Trust. There can be no assurance that any of the
foregoing will not have an adverse effect on the performance of the Trust.
The Prime Broker and the
Execution Agent may be subject to certain conflicts of interest, including: (i)
the Trust’s orders may be routed to the Prime Broker’s own execution venue or to
the Execution Agent’s principal market, where the Trust’s orders may be executed
against other customers of the Prime Broker or Execution Agent, or with the
Prime Broker acting as principal, (ii) the beneficial identity of the
counterparty purchaser or seller with respect to the Trust’s orders may be
unknown and therefore may inadvertently be another client of the Prime Broker or
the Execution Agent, (iii) neither the Prime Broker nor the Execution Agent
engages in front-running, but each is aware of the Trust’s orders or imminent
orders and may execute a trade for its own inventory (or the account of an
affiliate) while in possession of that knowledge, and (iv) the Prime Broker or
Execution Agent may act in a principal capacity with respect to certain orders.
As a result of these and other conflicts, when acting as principal, the Prime
Broker or the Execution Agent may have an incentive to favor its own interests
and the interests of its affiliates over the Trust’s interests. While the Prime
Broker and the Execution Agent each have in place procedures to mitigate
conflicts of interest when executing the Trust’s orders, trading platforms or
counterparties not used by the Prime Broker or Execution Agent may offer better
prices and/or lower costs than the platforms or counterparties used to execute
the Trust’s orders.
The Execution Agent has
adopted and implemented policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to
ensure compliance with applicable law, including among others a Personal Trading
Accounts Policy, a
Code of Ethics and
Business Conduct, and a Global Policy on the Use of Confidential Information and
the Prohibition of Insider Trading, which address certain conflicts of interest
(together, the “Policies”). Consistent with the requirements of the Policies,
the Execution Agent will implement standard operating protocols under which
personnel who have access to information about creation and redemption activity
in Shares of the Trust (“Solana Access Persons”) report and disclose personal
trading activity and holdings in SOL. All of the Execution Agent’s employees
will be required to preclear personal transactions in the Shares of the Trust.
In addition, the Sponsor will adopt a Code of Ethics that requires Solana Access
Persons to report and pre-clear certain transactions in SOL, Shares of the
Trust, and certain other digital assets. Finally, trading on behalf of clients
in the shares of the Trust will be subject to controls embedded in the Sponsor’s
and the Execution Agent’s respective compliance programs and systems.
Resolution
of Conflicts Procedures
The Trust Agreement
provides that whenever a conflict of interest exists between the Sponsor or any
of its affiliates, on the one hand, and the Trust or any Shareholders or any
other person, on the other hand, the Sponsor will resolve such conflict of
interest considering the relative interest of each party (including its own
interest) and the benefits and burdens relating to such interests, any customary
or accepted industry practices, and any applicable accepted accounting practices
or principles.
DUTIES
OF THE SPONSOR
The general fiduciary
duties that would otherwise be imposed on the Sponsor (which would make its
operation of the Trust as described herein impracticable due to the strict
prohibition imposed by such duties on, for example, conflicts of interest on
behalf of a fiduciary in its dealings with its beneficiaries), will be replaced
entirely by the terms of the Trust Agreement (to which terms all Shareholders,
by subscribing to the Shares, are deemed to consent). The Trust Agreement
provides that the duty and authority to manage the affairs of the Trust is
vested in the Sponsor, which duty and authority the Sponsor may further
delegate.
Additionally, under the
Trust Agreement, the Sponsor will have the power and authority as a sponsor of
the Trust to cause the Trust, among other things:
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• |
To own SOL, cash or IR Assets, to store SOL, cash or IR Assets with a
Custodian, and to transfer SOL, cash or IR
Assets; |
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• |
To litigate, compromise, arbitrate, settle or otherwise adjust claims
in favor of or against the Trust or any matter in controversy, including
claims for taxes; |
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• |
To operate as a trust with the purpose for which the Trust was
established as described in the Trust Agreement, and exercise all the
powers necessary or appropriate to the conduct of such
operations; |
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• |
To issue, sell, repurchase, redeem, cancel, retire, acquire, hold,
resell, reissue, transfer, dispose of and otherwise deal in Shares
pursuant to applicable federal law; to establish terms and conditions
including any fees or expenses regarding the issuance, sale, repurchase,
redemption, cancellation, retirement, acquisition, holding, resale,
reissuance, disposition of or dealing in Shares; and to apply to any such
repurchase, redemption, retirement, cancellation or acquisition of Shares
any funds or Trust property; |
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• |
In the event of an upcoming modification to the Solana network that
could potentially result in a network fork or in the event of an upcoming
airdrop, to cause the Solana Custodian, in consultation with the Sponsor,
to either (i) disclaim all rights to the IR Assets so created, (ii) sell
the IR Assets as soon as reasonably practicable and thereafter distribute
the cash proceeds to the Shareholders of record as of the date of the hard
fork or airdrop that resulted in the Trust’s acquisition of the IR Assets,
or (iii) distribute the IR Assets in-kind as soon as reasonably
practicable to the Shareholders of record as of the date of the hard
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fork or airdrop that
resulted in the Trust’s acquisition of the IR Assets or to an agent acting on
behalf of such Shareholders;
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• |
To make such filings applications, statements, certificates,
agreements and other instruments with the SEC, the Financial Industry
Regulatory Authority or a national securities exchange as may be required
by the federal securities laws or other applicable regulations or as
deemed necessary or desirable in the sole judgment of the
Sponsor; |
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• |
To prepare and file and execute, in each case on behalf of the Trust,
such applications, reports, surety bonds, irrevocable consents,
appointments of attorney for service of process;
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• |
To execute and deliver letters or documents to, or instruments for
filing with, a depository relating to the Shares to be issued by the Trust
and also any filing required to be made as determined by the Sponsor and
any other filing or application necessary or desirable as determined by
the Sponsor in connection with the registration and/or offering of Shares
by the Trust; |
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• |
To negotiate the terms of, and execute on behalf of the Trust, any
agreement, including, but not limited to, any underwriting agreement or
purchase agreement relating to the Shares to be issued by the Trust as
determined by the Sponsor; |
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• |
To do all other acts which, in the Sponsor’s judgment, are reasonably
necessary or desirable for the registration and/or offering of Shares by
the Trust; |
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• |
To stake or delegate to a Custodian, an affiliate of the
Custodian, an affiliate of the Execution Agent or another third-party to
Stake SOL on the Solana network or other digital assets on another digital
asset network, as applicable; |
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• |
Solely as consistent with the published IRS guidance, to borrow
money, SOL or other digital assets and in this connection issue notes or
other evidence of indebtedness; to secure such borrowings by mortgaging,
pledging or otherwise subjecting as security the Trust property; and to
endorse, guarantee, or undertake the performance of an obligation or
engagement of any other Person and to lend Trust property;
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• |
To retain independent public accountants to audit the accounts of the
Trust and employ attorneys to represent the Trust; and
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• |
To enter into contracts and carry on any other activities in
connection with or incidental to any of the foregoing powers or with the
furtherance of the Trust’s purpose.
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The Sponsor will perform
its duties in its subjective good faith belief as to what is in or not opposed
to the best interests of the Trust, but only consistent with the terms of the
Trust Agreement.
LIABILITY AND
INDEMNIFICATION
Trustee
The Trustee shall not be
liable for any action reasonably taken, suffered or omitted by it in good faith
and believed by it to be authorized or within the discretion or rights or powers
conferred upon it by the Trust Agreement. The Trustee shall not have any
obligation or duty to supervise or monitor the performance of any other person,
including the Trust or the Sponsor, and shall have no liability for the failure
of any other person to perform its obligations or duties under the agreements to
which the Trust or the Trustee is a party or otherwise. The Trustee will not be
personally liable under any circumstances, except for its own willful misconduct
or gross negligence. In particular, but not by way of limitation:
(a)
no implied covenants, duties (including fiduciary duties and duties existing at
law or in equity) or obligations shall be read into the Trust Agreement against
the Trustee;
(b)
in the absence of bad faith on the part of the Trustee, the Trustee may
conclusively rely, as to the truth of the statements and the correctness of the
opinions expressed therein, upon any certificates or opinions furnished to the
Trustee and conforming to the requirements of the Trust Agreement;
(c)
the Trustee shall not be liable for an error of judgment made in good faith by
an officer or employee of the Trustee;
(d)
the Trustee shall not be liable with respect to any action taken, suffered or
omitted to be taken by it in good faith in accordance with the direction of the
Sponsor;
(e)
no provision of the Trust Agreement shall require the Trustee to expend or risk
its personal funds or otherwise incur any financial liability in the performance
of its rights or duties under the Trust Agreement;
(f)
under no circumstance shall the Trustee be personally liable for any
representation, warranty, covenant, agreement or indebtedness of the Trust;
(g)
the Trustee shall not be personally responsible for or in respect of the
genuineness, form or value of the Trust property, the validity or sufficiency of
the Trust Agreement or for the due execution hereof by the Sponsor;
(h)
the Trustee shall have no liability or responsibility for the validity or
sufficiency of the Trust Agreement or for the form, character, genuineness,
sufficiency, enforceability, collectability, location, existence, value or
validity of the Trust estate;
(i)
the Trustee has not prepared or verified, and shall not be responsible or liable
for, any information, disclosure or other statement or in any document issued or
delivered in connection with the sale or transfer of the Shares;
(j)
the Trustee shall not have any liability for the acts or omissions of the
Sponsor, the Custodian or their respective delegates;
(k)
the Trustee shall have no duty or obligation to supervise the performance of any
obligations of the Sponsor, the Custodian or their respective delegates or any
Authorized Participant; and
(l)
in the event that the Trustee is unsure of the course of action to be taken by
it hereunder, the Trustee may request instructions from the Sponsor and to the
extent the Trustee follows such instructions in good faith it shall not be
liable to any person. In the event that no instructions are provided within the
time requested by the Trustee, it shall have no duty or liability for its
failure to take any action or for any action it takes in good faith.
The Trustee will have no liability for the
failure to respond to any instructions or directions that it has not actually
received. The Trustee also will not be liable for any losses, costs or expenses
arising directly or indirectly from the Trustee's reliance upon and compliance
with such instructions notwithstanding that such instructions conflict, or are
inconsistent, with a subsequent written instruction.
The Trustee is under no obligation to exercise
any of the duties or powers vested in it by the Trust Agreement; or to make any
investigation of matters arising under the Trust Agreement; or to institute,
conduct or defend any litigation under the Trust Agreement or in relation
thereto; or (except in certain limited circumstances) to make any investigation
into the facts or matters stated in any resolution, certificate, statement,
instrument, opinion, report, notice, request, consent, order, approval, bond or
other paper or document, unless requested in writing to do so by the
Sponsor.
The Trustee may execute
any of the trusts or powers vested in it by the Trust Agreement or perform any
of its duties under the Trust Agreement either directly or by or through agents,
nominees, or attorney-in-fact appointed with due care and shall not be
responsible for any willful misconduct or negligence on the part of any agent,
custodian, nominee or attorney-in-fact so appointed, provided that the
appointment of any
agent, custodian, nominee
or attorney-in-fact shall not relieve the Trustee of any of its obligations or
liabilities under the Trust Agreement.
Except as otherwise
provided in Section 2.2 of the Trust Agreement, in accepting the trust created
by the Trust Agreement, the Trustee acts solely as a trustee under the Trust
Agreement and not in its individual capacity, and all persons having any claim
against the Trustee by reason of the transactions contemplated by the Trust
Agreement will look only to the Trust’s property for payment or satisfaction
thereof.
The Trustee will not be
liable for special, indirect, punitive or consequential loss or damage of any
kind whatsoever (including but not limited to lost profits), even if the Trustee
has been advised of the likelihood of such loss or damage and regardless of the
form of action. In no event shall the Trustee hereto be liable for any failure
or delay in the performance of its obligations under the Trust Agreement or any
related documents because of circumstances beyond its control.
Under the Trust Agreement,
the Trust has agreed to be primary obligor and to indemnify, defend and hold
harmless the Trustee, in its individual capacity and in its capacity as Trustee
and any of the officers, directors, employees, affiliates and agents of the
Trustee (the “Indemnified Persons”) from and against any and all losses,
damages, liabilities, claims, actions, suits, costs, expenses, disbursements
(including reasonable legal fees and expenses in connection with enforcement of
its rights to indemnity under the Trust Agreement and including the reasonable
fees and expenses of counsel), taxes and penalties of any kind and nature
whatsoever (collectively, “Expenses”), to the extent that such Expenses arise
out of or are imposed upon or asserted at any time against such Indemnified
Persons with respect to the performance of the Trust Agreement, the creation,
operation or termination of the Trust or the transactions contemplated by the
Trust Agreement; provided, however, that the Trust shall not be required to
indemnify any Indemnified Person for any Expenses which are a result of the
willful misconduct or gross negligence of an Indemnified Person.
As security for any
amounts owing to the Trustee under the indemnification provisions of the Trust
Agreement described above, the Trustee shall have a lien against the Trust’s
property, which lien shall be prior to the rights of the Sponsor or any other
Shareholder of the Trust. The obligations of the Sponsor and the Trust to
indemnify the Indemnified Persons will survive the termination of the Trust
Agreement.
Sponsor
The Trust Agreement
provides that the Trust will indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Sponsor, in
its capacity as Sponsor, and any of the officers, directors, employees,
affiliates and agents of the Sponsor (the “Sponsor Indemnified Persons”) from
and against any and all Expenses, to the extent that such Expenses arise out of
or are imposed upon or asserted at any time against such Sponsor Indemnified
Persons with respect to the performance of the Trust Agreement, the creation,
operation or termination of the Trust or the transactions contemplated by the
Trust Agreement; provided, however, that the Trust shall not be required to
indemnify any Sponsor Indemnified Person for any Expenses which are a result of
the willful misconduct, bad faith or gross negligence of a Sponsor Indemnified
Person. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Expenses to be incurred by a
Sponsor Indemnified Person shall, from time to time, be advanced by, or on
behalf of, the Trust prior to the final disposition of any matter upon receipt
by the Trust of an undertaking by, or on behalf of, such Sponsor Indemnified
Person to repay such amount if it shall be determined that the Sponsor
Indemnified Person is not entitled to be indemnified under the Trust Agreement.
The obligations of the Trust to indemnify the Sponsor Indemnified Parties will
survive the termination of the Trust Agreement.
The Trust Agreement
provides that (i) whenever a conflict of interest exists or arises between the
Sponsor, on the one hand, and the Trust, on the other hand; or (ii) whenever the
Trust Agreement or any other
agreement contemplated in
the Trust Agreement provides that the Sponsor will act in a manner that is, or
provides terms that are, fair and reasonable to the Trust, any Shareholder or
any other person, the Sponsor will use its good faith efforts to resolve such
conflict of interest, take such action or provide such terms, considering in
each case the relative interest of each party (including its own interest) to
such conflict, agreement, transaction or situation and the benefits and burdens
relating to such interests, any customary or accepted industry practices, and
any applicable generally accepted accounting practices or principles. In the
absence of bad faith by the Sponsor, the resolution, action or terms so made,
taken or provided by the Sponsor will not constitute a breach of the Trust
Agreement or any other agreement contemplated therein or of any duty or
obligation of the Sponsor at law or in equity or otherwise.
VOTING
BY SHAREHOLDERS; MANAGEMENT
The Shareholders of the
Trust take no part in the management or control of, and have no voice in, the
Trust’s operations or business. Shareholders will have no voting rights under
the Trust Agreement, except as authorized in the Sponsor's sole discretion. It
is currently anticipated that Shareholders will possess no voting rights except
as required by the listing rules of the Exchange or applicable law to which the
Trust is subject.
The Sponsor, in its sole
discretion, will generally have the right to amend the Trust Agreement without
the consent of any Shareholders as it applies to the Trust provided that any
amendment that imposes or increases any fees or charges or prejudices a
substantial existing right of the Shareholders will not become effective until
thirty (30) days after notice of such amendment is given to the Shareholders.
Any amendment shall be effective on such date as designated by the Sponsor in
its sole discretion. No amendment affecting the Trustee will be binding upon or
effective against the Trustee unless consented to by the Trustee.
Liquidation and Voting
Rights. The Sponsor will act to terminate the Trust upon the agreement of
Shareholders owning at least seventy-five (75) percent of the outstanding
Shares. Consistent with the Trust Agreement, upon dissolution of the Trust, the
Trustee will wind up the business and affairs of the Trust and direct the
Execution Agent to sell all the SOL remaining in the Trust in an orderly manner.
Following the liquidation of the Trust’s SOL, any remaining outstanding Shares
will be redeemed for cash and distributed to Shareholders in accordance with the
provisions of the Trust Agreement.
The Trust does not have
any directors, officers or employees. The creation and operation of the Trust
has been arranged by the Sponsor. Under the Trust Agreement, all management
functions of the Trust will be delegated to and will be conducted by the
Sponsor, its agents and its affiliates, including the Solana Custodian. The
following persons, in their respective capacities as officers of the Sponsor
perform certain functions with respect to the Trust that, if the Trust had
officers, would typically be performed by them.
|
Name |
Capacity |
|
Brian Hartigan* |
Chief Executive Officer, Board of
Managers |
|
Peter Hubbard |
Vice President and Director of Portfolio
Management |
|
Jordan Krugman* |
Board of Managers |
|
Terry Gibson Vacheron |
Chief Financial Officer |
|
Kelli Gallegos* |
Principal Financial and Accounting
Officer, Investment Pools |
|
Melanie Zimdars |
Chief Compliance Officer |
|
Melanie Ringold* |
Board of
Managers |
*
Executive officer of the Trust, within the meaning of Rule 3b-7 under the
Exchange Act.
The Sponsor is managed by
a Board of Managers. The Board of Managers is composed of Messrs. Hartigan
and Krugman and Ms. Ringold.
Brian Hartigan (45) has been Chief Executive
Officer of the Sponsor since November 2023. In this role, he has general
oversight responsibilities for all of the Sponsor’s business. Mr. Hartigan has
been a Member of the Board of Managers of the Sponsor since November 2023.
Previously, Mr. Hartigan was Global Head of ETF Investments and Indexed
Strategies at Invesco Ltd., a global investment management company and affiliate
of the Sponsor, since 2015. In that role, he was responsible for oversight of
all portfolio management activities of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as well as
providing support to the US ETF Board, serving as a global ETF expert/resource
and providing day-to-day support. In addition, he was a team leader for
Invesco’s unit investment trusts. Mr. Hartigan earned a BA degree from the
University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and an MBA in finance from DePaul
University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) charterholder and a member of the CFA
Society of Chicago.
Peter Hubbard (43) joined the Sponsor in May
2005 as a portfolio manager and has been Vice President, Director of Portfolio
Management since September 2012. In his role, Mr. Hubbard manages a team of
eight portfolio managers. His responsibilities include facilitating all
portfolio management processes associated with more than 200 equity and fixed
income Invesco Funds listed in the United States, Canada and Europe. He is a
graduate of Wheaton College with a B.A. degree in Business &
Economics.
Jordan Krugman (46) is Chief Financial Officer
of the Americas for Invesco Ltd., a global investment management company
affiliated with the Sponsor. He was appointed to this position in October 2020.
In this capacity, Mr. Krugman is responsible for general management support, in
addition to executing on various strategic initiatives and overseeing the
financial framework for the business units operating within the Americas
division of Invesco Ltd. He has also served as a Member of the Board of Managers
of the Sponsor since October 2020. From March 2019 to October 2020, Mr. Krugman
served as the Global Head of Financial Planning and Analysis at Invesco Ltd. In
this role, he was responsible for overseeing Invesco’s forecasting, budgeting
strategic planning and financial target setting processes, including analytics
and decision support for Invesco Ltd.’s executive team. From March 2017 to March
2019, Mr. Krugman served as Invesco Ltd.’s Head of Finance & Corporate
Strategy, North America. In this role, Mr. Krugman was responsible for strategic
and financial planning for Invesco Ltd.’s global investments organization
including global real estate, private equity and global fixed income. Prior to
that, Mr. Krugman was Invesco Ltd.’s Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations
from May 2011 to March 2017. In this role, he was responsible for management of
Invesco Ltd.’s liquidity and capital management programs. Additionally, Mr.
Krugman managed the communication with Invesco Ltd.’s external stakeholders
including equity shareholders, debt investors, rating agencies, and research
analysts. Mr. Krugman earned a BA degree in American civilizations, with a U.S.
history concentration, from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1999, and earned an
MBA from Santa Clara University in California in 2007. He is a Certified
Treasury Professional (CTP).
Terry Vacheron CPA (59) is the Chief Accounting Officer (since
April 2022) and Head of Global Tax (since November 2020) at Invesco Ltd. In this
role, she leads the company’s financial reporting, accounting, corporate tax,
payroll, and SOX functions. Ms. Vacheron also serves as the Chief Financial
Officer (since June 2022) of the Sponsor and Invesco Advisers Inc. where she is
responsible for overseeing all aspect of the companies’ financial operations,
including financial reporting and accounting. Ms. Vacheron joined Invesco in
November 2020 following a brief break while between roles in October 2020. Prior
to joining the firm, she was with SunTrust Bank (and later Truist Bank, which
was formed in 2019 following the merger of BB&T and SunTrust) from October
2009 until September 2020, where she served as the Chief Tax Officer. Ms.
Vacheron directed the full spectrum of corporate tax matters and led the tax
merger integration effort for the BBT and SunTrust merger. In an overlapping
role as the Corporate Functions Risk Officer at SunTrust Bank from March 2013
to December 2019, she built and led multiple corporate risk programs to identify
and manage risk while maintaining her Chief Tax Officer responsibilities. During
her tenure, she oversaw the implementation of stronger guidelines and
accountability for risk programs, including SOX, third-party risk management,
and operational risk oversight. Ms. Vacheron earned a BS degree in accounting
from the University of Tennessee. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
Ms.
Vacheron served on the
board of the United Way of Greater Atlanta from 2013 to 2020. She served as a
member of the United Way’s Community Engagement Council and is currently on the
United Way’s Finance Committee.
Kelli Gallegos (53) has been Principal
Financial and Accounting Officer—Investment Pools for the Sponsor since
September 2018. Additionally, since September 2018, Ms. Gallegos has been
Principal Financial and Accounting Officer – Investment Pools of Invesco
Specialized Products, LLC (sponsor to a suite of currency exchange-traded funds,
“ISP”), Head of North America Fund Reporting of Invesco, Ltd. (“Invesco”, a
global investment management company), and Vice President and Treasurer of
Invesco Exchange Traded Fund Trust, Invesco Exchange-Traded Fund Trust II,
Invesco India Exchange-Traded Fund Trust, Invesco Actively Managed
Exchange-Traded Fund Trust, Invesco Actively Managed Exchange-Traded Commodity
Fund Trust, and Invesco Exchange-Traded Self-Indexed Fund Trusts (each a
registered investment company offering series of exchange-traded funds, the
“Invesco ETFs”). She also serves as Vice President (since March 2016), Principal
Financial Officer (since March 2016) and Assistant Treasurer (since December
2008) for a suite of mutual funds advised by Invesco Advisers, Inc., a
registered investment adviser (the “Invesco Funds”). In her roles with the
Sponsor, ISP, Invesco, the Invesco ETFs, and the Invesco Funds, Ms. Gallegos has
financial and administrative oversight responsibilities for, and serves as
Principal Financial Officer of the Invesco ETFs, the Trust and the
exchange-traded funds for which ISP serves as sponsor (the “CurrencyShares
Trusts”). Previously, she was Director of Fund Financial Services from December
2008 to September 2018, Assistant Treasurer for the Sponsor from January 2013 to
September 2018, Assistant Treasurer of ISP from April 2018 to September 2018,
Assistant Treasurer for the Invesco ETFs from September 2014 to September 2018
and Assistant Vice President for the Invesco Funds from December 2008 to March
2016. In such roles, Ms. Gallegos managed the group of personnel responsible for
the preparation of fund financial statements and other information necessary for
shareholder reports, fund prospectuses, regulatory filings, and for the
coordination and oversight of third-party service providers of the Trust, the
Invesco ETFs, the Invesco Funds, and the CurrencyShares Trusts. Ms. Gallegos
earned a BBA in accounting from Harding University in Searcy, AR.
Melanie H. Zimdars (47) has been Chief
Compliance Officer of the Sponsor since November 2017. In this role she is
responsible for all aspects of regulatory compliance for the Sponsor. Ms.
Zimdars has also served as Chief Compliance Officer of Invesco Exchange-Traded
Fund Trust, Invesco Exchange-Traded Fund Trust II, Invesco India Exchange-Traded
Fund Trust, Invesco Actively Managed Exchange-Traded Fund Trust and Invesco
Actively Managed Exchange-Traded Commodity Fund Trust since November 2017. From
September 2009 to October 2017, she served as Vice President and Deputy Chief
Compliance Officer at ALPS Holdings, Inc. where she was Chief Compliance Officer
for six different mutual fund complexes, including active and passive ETFs and
open-end and closed-end funds. Through its subsidiary companies, ALPS Holdings,
Inc. is a provider of investment products and customized servicing solutions to
the financial services industry. Ms. Zimdars received a BS degree from the
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Melanie Ringold (48) has been a
Member of the Board of Managers of the Sponsor since July 2024. Ms. Ringold
has also served as Head of Legal for the Americas at Invesco Ltd., a global
investment management company and affiliate of the Sponsor, since January 2023.
In this role, she is responsible for overseeing legal support for all of
Invesco’s Americas business. Prior to her current position, Ms. Ringold
served as Assistant General Counsel from March 2011 until January 2023, where
she was responsible for overseeing legal support for the investments
organization and co-chairing the firm’s US Regulatory Change
Committee. Ms. Ringold earned a JD from the University of Houston Law
Center and a BA degree in political science from the University of
Michigan.
BOOKS
AND RECORDS
The Trust keeps its books
of record and account at the office of the Sponsor or at the offices of the
Administrator, or such office, including of an administrative agent, as it may
subsequently designate upon notice. The books and records are open to inspection
by any person who establishes to the Trust’s satisfaction that such person is a
Shareholder upon reasonable advance notice at all reasonable times during usual
business hours of the Trust.
The Trust will keep a copy
of the Trust Agreement on file in the Sponsor’s office, which will be available
for inspection by any Shareholder at all times during its usual business hours
upon reasonable advance notice.
STATEMENTS,
FILINGS, AND REPORTS TO SHAREHOLDERS
After the end of each
fiscal year, the Sponsor will cause to be prepared an annual report for the
Trust containing audited financial statements. The annual report will be in such
form and contain such information as will be required by applicable laws, rules
and regulations and may contain such additional information that the Sponsor
determines shall be included. The annual report will be filed with the SEC and
the Exchange and will be distributed to such persons and in such manner, as is
required by applicable laws, rules and regulations.
The Sponsor is responsible
for the registration and qualification of the Shares under the federal
securities laws. The Sponsor will also prepare, or cause to be prepared, and
file any periodic reports or updates required under the Exchange Act. The
Administrator will assist and support the Sponsor in the preparation of such
reports.
The Administrator will
make such elections, file such tax returns, and prepare, disseminate and file
such tax reports, as it is advised to by its counsel or accountants or as
required from time to time by any applicable statute, rule or regulation.
FISCAL
YEAR
The fiscal year of the
Trust is the period ending December 31 of each year. The Sponsor may select an
alternate fiscal year.
GOVERNING
LAW; CONSENT TO DELAWARE JURISDICTION
The rights of the Sponsor,
the Trust, DTC (as registered owner of the Trust’s global certificate for
Shares) and the Shareholders are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware.
The Sponsor, the Trust, and, by accepting Shares, each DTC Participant and each
Shareholder, consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery of
the State of Delaware or, if such court does not have subject matter
jurisdiction, any other courts located in Delaware for any claims, suits,
actions or proceedings, provided that (i) the forum selection provisions do not
apply to suits brough to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act
or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction and
(ii) the federal district courts of the United States of America shall be the
exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action
arising under any federal securities law. By purchasing Shares in the Trust,
Shareholders waive certain claims that the courts of the State of Delaware and
any other courts located in Delaware is an inconvenient venue or is otherwise
inappropriate.
LEGAL
MATTERS
Litigation
and Claims
Within the past five years
of the date of this Prospectus, there have been no material administrative,
civil or criminal actions against the Sponsor, the Trust or any principal or
affiliate of any of them. This includes any actions pending, on appeal,
concluded, threatened, or otherwise known to them.
Legal
Opinions
The validity of the Shares
will be passed upon for the Sponsor by Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP.
Certain opinions of counsel have been filed with the SEC as exhibits to the
Registration Statement of which this Prospectus is a part.
EXPERTS
The financial statement as
of October 16, 2025 included in this Prospectus has been so included in reliance
on the report of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public
accounting firm, given on the authority of said firm as experts in auditing and
accounting.
MATERIAL
CONTRACTS
Trust
Agreement
The following is a
description of the material terms of the Trust Agreement.
Appointment
and Duties of Trustee
The Trust Agreement
provides that the Trustee is appointed to serve as the trustee of the Trust in
the State of Delaware for the sole purpose of satisfying the requirement of
Section 3807(a) of the Delaware Act that the Trust have at least one trustee
with a principal place of business in Delaware. The Sponsor shall have the
exclusive authority to manage the affairs of the Trust as an agent of the Trust
pursuant to Section 3806(b)(7) of the Delaware Act.
Under the Trust Agreement,
the Trustee has no obligation to supervise or monitor the Trust’s service
providers or otherwise manage the Trust. The duties of the Trustee shall be
limited to (i) accepting legal process served on the Trust in the State of
Delaware and (ii) the execution of any certificates required to be filed with
the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware which the Trustee is required to
execute under Section 3811 of the Delaware Act.
The Trust Agreement
provides that the Trustee shall serve for the duration of the Trust and until
the effective date of the Trustee’s resignation or removal. The Trustee may
resign upon sixty (60) days’ prior notice to the Sponsor, which shall promptly
appoint a successor. If no successor has been appointed by the Sponsor within
such sixty (60) day period, the Trustee may, at the expense of the Trust,
petition a court to appoint a successor trustee.
Jurisdiction
and Waiver of Jury Trial
The Trust Agreement
provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware or, if such court
does not have subject matter jurisdiction, any other courts located in Delaware
will be the exclusive jurisdiction for any claims, suits, actions or
proceedings, provided that the federal district courts of the United States
of
America shall be the
exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action
arising under any federal securities law. By purchasing Shares in the Trust,
Shareholders waive certain claims that the courts of the State of Delaware and
any other courts located in Delaware is an inconvenient venue or is otherwise
inappropriate. As such, Shareholder could be required to litigate a matter
relating to the Trust in a Delaware court, even if that court may otherwise be
inconvenient for the Shareholder.
Matters
Pertaining to Shares and Shareholders of the Trust
The Trust Agreement
authorizes the Trust to issue an unlimited number of shares unless otherwise
determined and subject to any conditions set forth by the Sponsor. The Trust
will issue and redeem the Shares in Creation Baskets only to certain Authorized
Participants on an ongoing basis, or to such other purchaser or purchasers,
including the Seed Capital Investor, as otherwise determined by the Sponsor in
its sole discretion, and only in exchange for SOL and/or cash. The creation and
redemption mechanics are further described above under “Creation and Redemption
of Shares.”
The Trust Agreement
provides that all of the Shares are of the same class with equal rights and
privileges. Each of the Shares is transferable, is fully paid and nonassessable
and entitles the holder to vote on the limited matters upon which Shareholders
may vote under the Trust Agreement. The Shares do not entitle their holders to
any conversion or pre-emptive rights or, except as provided below, any
redemption rights or rights to distributions. Shareholders have no voting
rights, except as authorized in the Sponsor's sole discretion. It is currently
anticipated that Shareholders will possess no voting rights except as required
by the listing rules of the Exchange or applicable law to which the Trust is
subject. Shareholder voting rights are further described above under
“Voting by Shareholders; Management—Liquidation and Voting Rights.”
Powers
and Duties of the Sponsor
The Trust Agreement
provides that the duty and authority to manage the affairs of the Trust is
vested in the Sponsor, which duty and authority the Sponsor may further
delegate, all pursuant to Section 3806(b)(7) of the Delaware Act. The duties of
the Sponsor under the Trust Agreement are further described above under “Duties
of the Sponsor.”
Indemnification
Under the Trust Agreement,
the Trustee and the Sponsor will have a right to be indemnified by the Trust for
certain liabilities or expenses that each incurs without gross negligence, bad
faith or willful misconduct on its part.
Amendments
The Trust Agreement
provides that it may be amended by the Sponsor in its sole discretion and
without the Shareholders’ consent. Any such amendment to the Trust Agreement
will be effective on such date as designated by the Sponsor in its sole
discretion, except that any amendment that imposes or increases any fees or
charges or prejudices a substantial existing right of the Shareholders will not
become effective until thirty (30) days after notice of such amendment is given
to the Shareholders. However, any amendment to the Trust Agreement that affects
the rights or duties of the Trustee will require the Trustee’s prior written
consent. Every Shareholder, at the time any amendment so becomes effective, will
be deemed, by continuing to hold any Shares or an interest therein, to consent
and agree to such amendment and to be bound by the Trust Agreement as amended
thereby.
Tax
Matters
The Trust Agreement
provides that the Sponsor intends that the Trust shall be treated, for federal,
state and local income tax purposes, as a grantor trust, and that,
notwithstanding anything contained in the Trust Agreement to the contrary,
neither the Sponsor nor the Trustee, nor any other person acting for or on
behalf of the Trust, shall take any action that is inconsistent with such
treatment.
Governing
Law
The validity and
construction of the Trust Agreement and all amendments thereto shall be governed
by the laws of the State of Delaware, and the rights of all parties hereto and
the effect of every provision thereof shall be subject to and construed
according to the laws of the State of Delaware without regard to the conflicts
of law provisions thereof; provided, however, that causes of action for
violations of U.S. federal or state securities laws are not governed by this
limitation.
Derivative
Actions
Under the Trust Agreement,
no person who is not a Shareholder shall be entitled to bring any derivative
action, suit or other proceeding on behalf of the Trust. The Trust Agreement
provides that no Shareholder may maintain a derivative action on behalf of the
Trust unless holders of at least ten percent (10%) of the outstanding Shares
join in the bringing of such action. In addition to the requirements set forth
in Section 3816 of the Delaware Act, a Shareholder may bring a derivative action
on behalf of the Trust only if it meets additional conditions described in the
Trust Agreement.
Merger
and Consolidation
Under the Trust Agreement,
the Sponsor may cause (i) the Trust to be merged into or consolidated with,
converted to or to sell all or substantially all of its assets to, another trust
or entity; (ii) the Shares of the Trust to be converted into beneficial
interests in another statutory trust (or series thereof); or (iii) the Shares of
the Trust to be exchanged for units in another trust or company under or
pursuant to any U.S. state or federal statute to the extent permitted by law.
Under the Trust Agreement, the Sponsor, with written notice to the Shareholders,
may approve and effect any such transactions without any vote or other action of
the Shareholders, but will not do so if doing so would cause the Trust, its
successor or other trust or company in which the Shareholders hold beneficial
interests as a result of such transaction to fail or cease to qualify as a
grantor trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes and any purported approval or
effecting of such a transaction shall be null and void ab initio and without
legal effect.
Term
and Termination
The Trust has no fixed
termination date. The Trust may dissolve at the written direction of the Sponsor
under the circumstances described in the section titled “Additional Information
About the Trust—Dissolution of the Trust,” above. On and after the date of
dissolution of the Trust, the Sponsor shall wind up the Trust’s business and
affairs in its sole discretion in accordance with the Delaware Act and upon
completion of the winding up of the Trust’s business and affairs by the Sponsor
in accordance with the Delaware Act, including the payment of the expenses of
liquidation and termination and any fee to the Transfer Agent in connection
therewith and payment of any applicable taxes or other governmental charges,
Shareholders will be entitled to the distribution of the amount of trust
property (paid in cash) represented by those Shares upon surrender or
termination of the Shares then held. Upon completion of the winding up of the
Trust’s business and affairs by the Sponsor, the Trustee shall, at the written
direction and expense of the Sponsor, file a certificate of cancellation in
accordance with the Delaware Act and thereafter shall be
released from any further
duties or liabilities. Any remaining expenses of the Trust shall be paid by the
Sponsor.
The Sponsor will act to
terminate the Trust upon the agreement of Shareholders owning at least
seventy-five (75) percent of the outstanding Shares.
Trust
Administration and Accounting Agreement
Pursuant to the Trust
Administration and Accounting Agreement, the Administrator is generally
responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Trust. The responsibilities
of the Administrator include (i) establishing appropriate expense accruals and
compute expense ratios, maintaining expense files and coordinating the payment
of Trust approved invoices; (ii) calculating Trust approved income and per Share
amounts required for periodic distributions to be made by the Trust; (iii)
calculating total return information; (iv) coordinating the Trust’s annual
audit; (v) supplying various normal and customary portfolio and Trust
statistical data as requested on an ongoing basis; and (vi) preparing financial
statements for the Trust.
The responsibilities of
the Administrator also include providing various valuation and computation
accounting services for the Trust, including (i) maintaining certain financial
books and records for the Trust, including creation and redemptions books and
records, and Trust accounting records; (ii) computing the Trust’s NAV; (iii)
obtaining quotes from pricing services as directed and approved by the Sponsor,
or if such quotes are unavailable, then obtaining such prices from the Sponsor,
and in either case, calculating the market value of the Trust’s assets in
accordance with the Trust’s valuation policies or guidelines; and (iv)
transmitting or making available a copy of the daily portfolio valuation to the
Sponsor.
The Trust will indemnify
the Administrator and any affiliate of the Administrator (“Administrator
Indemnitees”), and the Administrator Indemnitees will incur no liability for its
reliance upon (i) any law, act, regulation or interpretation of the same even
though the same may thereafter have been altered, changed, amended or repealed,
(ii) the Trust’s offering materials or documents (excluding information provided
by the Administrator), (iii) any instructions or (iv) any written opinion of
legal counsel for the Trust or the Administrator, or arising out of transactions
or other activities of the Trust which occurred prior to the commencement of the
Trust Administration and Accounting Agreement; provided however, that the Trust
shall not indemnify any Indemnitee for any losses arising out of the
Administrator Indemnitees’ own bad faith, gross negligence or willful misconduct
in the performance of the Trust Administration and Accounting Agreement.
The Trust Administration
and Accounting Agreement will have a three-year initial term and will
automatically be renewed for successive one-year periods, unless terminated
pursuant to the terms of the agreement. The Trust may terminate the Trust
Administration and Accounting Agreement at any time upon ninety days’ prior
written notice in the event that the Sponsor determines to liquidate the Trust.
The Administrator may terminate the Trust Administration and Accounting
Agreement at any time upon ninety days’ written notice for any reason and upon
thirty (30) days’ written notice in the event of a breach of certain of the
Trust’s representations contained in the Trust Administration and Accounting
Agreement.
Transfer
Agency and Services Agreement
Pursuant to the Transfer
Agency and Services Agreement, the Transfer Agent is generally responsible for
the day-to-day administration of the Trust. The responsibilities of the Transfer
Agent include: (i) performing and facilitating the performance of purchases and
redemption of Baskets in connection with creation and redemption transactions;
(ii) preparing and transmitting by means of DTC’s book entry system payments for
dividends and distributions on or with respect to the Shares, if any, declared
by the Trust; (iii) maintaining the record of the name and address of the
Shareholder and the number of Shares issued by the
Trust and held by the
Shareholder; and (iv) recording the issuance of Shares of the Trust and maintain
a record of the total number of Shares of the Trust which are outstanding and
authorized, based upon data provided to it by the Trust.
The Transfer Agency and
Services Agreement will have a three-year initial term and will automatically be
renewed for successive one-year periods, unless terminated pursuant to the terms
of the agreement. The Trust may terminate the Transfer Agency and Services
Agreement at any time upon ninety days’ written notice in the event that the
Trust’s sponsor determines to liquidate the Trust. The Transfer Agent may
terminate the Transfer Agency and Services Agreement at any time upon ninety
days’ written notice for any reason.
Solana
Custody Agreement
Pursuant to the Solana
Custody Agreement, the Solana Custodian is responsible for providing the Trust
with segregated cold wallet digital asset custody. The Trust’s assets with the
Solana Custodian are held in segregated wallets and are therefore not commingled
with corporate or other customer assets. The Solana Custodian also segregates
each of the accounts (comprising multiple wallets in some cases) that a client
(such as the Trust) may hold with the Solana Custodian, and each such account’s
balance represents the account’s on-chain balance, which can be independently
verified by the client or third-party auditors as needed. This approach applies
to each asset supported by the Solana Custodian.
Private key materials are
generated and subsequently stored in a form whereby no private key is stored in
a decrypted format. The private key materials are stored within the Solana
Custodian’s secure storage facilities within the U.S. and Europe. For security
reasons, these exact locations are never disclosed.
Personnel supporting key
operations are very limited and the Solana Custodian requires a background check
prior to onboarding, and where required, annually thereafter. No single
individual associated with the Solana Custodian has access to full private keys.
Private key use and subsequent transaction signing instead require access to
multiple systems and human operators in order to access a key and perform an
on-chain transaction. For security purposes, the Solana Custodian does not
disclose specifics around the roles and numbers of individuals involved in these
processes.
The Solana Custodian
maintains an annually renewed insurance policy with comprehensive coverage terms
and conditions. This insurance policy covers the loss of client assets held in
cold storage at the Solana Custodian. This insurance program, which has
continuously run since 2013, provides the Solana Custodian and its clients with
some of the broadest and deepest insurance coverage in the digital asset
industry, with coverage designed to be comprehensive, including losses from
employee collusion or fraud, physical loss (including theft), or damage of key
material, security breach or hack, and fraudulent transfer. Furthermore,
Coinbase also maintains a Cyber insurance program covering security
failures.
The Solana Custodian
maintains an Internal Audit team that performs periodic internal audits over
custody operations. SOC attestations are also performed on the Solana
Custodian’s services. The SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 reports produced cover
private key management controls as well as ensure controls are designed and
operating effectively, providing reasonable assurance that customer digital
asset positions held in custody and prime brokerage accounts are authorized,
executed and accurately and completely recorded. A SOC 1 Type 2 report addresses
the controls at a service organization that are likely to be relevant to user
entities’ internal control over financial reporting. A SOC 2 Type 2 report
addresses controls at a service organization relevant to security, availability,
processing integrity, confidentiality, or privacy in order to support users’
evaluations of their own systems of internal control.
The Solana Custodian will
not be liable for any amount greater than the greater of (i) the aggregate
amount of custodial fees paid in a 12-month period from the Trust to the Solana
Custodian or (ii) the value of the supported digital assets on deposit in the
Trust’s custodial account(s) at the time of the event giving rise to the
liability, subject further to the maximum liability limit of $100 million for
each cold storage address. Additionally, in respect of any incidental, indirect,
special, punitive, consequential or similar losses, the Solana Custodian is not
liable, even if the Solana Custodian has been advised of or knew or should have
known of the possibility thereof. The Solana Custodian is not liable for delays,
suspension of operations, failure in performance, or interruption of service to
the extent it is directly due to a cause or condition beyond the reasonable
control of the Solana Custodian.
The Solana Custody
Agreement became effective on October 10, 2025, and has no fixed termination
date. Either party may terminate the Solana Custody Agreement in its entirety
for any reason and without cause by providing at least ninety days’ prior
written notice to the other party.
Cash
Custody Agreement
The Sponsor has entered
into a Cash Custody Agreement with the Cash Custodian (the “Cash Custody
Agreement”). Under the Cash Custody Agreement, the Cash Custodian will keep
safely all cash and other non-SOL assets of the Trust delivered to the Cash
Custodian and, on behalf of the Trust, the Cash Custodian shall, from time to
time, accept delivery of cash and other non-SOL assets for safekeeping.
In performing its duties
under the Cash Custody Agreement, the Cash Custodian will exercise the standard
of care and diligence that a professional custodian would observe in these
affairs taking into account the prevailing rules, practices, procedures and
circumstances in the relevant market and shall perform its duties without
negligence, fraud, bad faith or willful misconduct. The Cash Custodian’s
liability arising out of or relating to the Cash Custody Agreement will be
limited solely to those direct damages that are caused by the Cash Custodian’s
failure to perform its obligations under the Cash Custody Agreement in
accordance with this standard of care.
The Cash Custody Agreement
has no fixed termination date. Each party may terminate the Cash Custody
Agreement by giving to the counterparty a notice in writing specifying the date
of such termination, which will be not less than ninety days after the date of
such notice.
Marketing
Agent Agreement
Pursuant to the Marketing
Agent Agreement, the Marketing Agent is generally responsible for certain
aspects of the day-to-day administration of the Trust. The responsibilities of
the Marketing Agent include (i) at the request of the Trust, assisting the Trust
with facilitating Authorized Participant Agreements between and among Authorized
Participants, the Trust, and the applicable Transfer Agent, for the creation and
redemption of Creation Baskets of the Trust; (ii) maintaining copies of
confirmations of Creation Basket creation and redemption order acceptances and
producing such copies upon reasonable request from the Trust or Sponsor; (iii)
making available copies of the Prospectus to Authorized Participants who have
purchased Baskets in accordance with the Authorized Participant Agreements; (iv)
maintaining telephonic, facsimile and/or access to direct computer
communications links with the Transfer Agent; (v) reviewing and approving, prior
to use, certain Trust marketing materials submitted by the Trust for review
(“Marketing Materials”) for compliance with applicable SEC and FINRA advertising
rules, and filing all such Marketing Materials required to be filed with FINRA;
(vi) ensuring that all direct requests by Authorized Participants for
Prospectuses are fulfilled; and (vii) working with the Transfer Agent to review
and approve orders placed by Authorized Participants and transmitted to the
Transfer Agent.
The Trust shall indemnify,
defend and hold the Marketing Agent, its affiliates and each of their respective
members, managers, directors, officers, employees, representatives and any
person who controls or previously controlled the Marketing Agent within the
meaning of Section 15 of the Securities Act (collectively, the “Marketing Agent
Indemnitees”), free and harmless from and against any and all losses, claims,
demands, liabilities, damages and expenses (including the costs of investigating
or defending any alleged losses, claims, demands, liabilities, damages or
expenses and any reasonable counsel fees incurred in connection therewith)
(collectively, “Losses”) that any Marketing Agent Indemnitee may incur arising
out of or relating to (i) the Trust’s breach of any of its obligations,
representations, warranties or covenants contained in the Marketing Agent
Agreement; (ii) the Trust’s failure to comply in all material respects with any
applicable laws, rules or regulations; or (iii) any claim that the Prospectus,
sales literature and advertising materials or other information filed or made
public by the Trust (as from time to time amended) includes or included an
untrue statement of a material fact or omits or omitted to state a material fact
required to be stated therein or necessary in order to make the statements
therein not misleading provided, however, that the Trust’s obligation to
indemnify any of the Marketing Agent Indemnitees shall not be deemed to cover
any Losses arising out of any untrue statement or alleged untrue statement or
omission or alleged omission made in the Prospectus or any such advertising
materials or sales literature or other information filed or made public by the
Trust in reliance upon and in conformity with information provided by the
Marketing Agent to the Trust, in writing, for use in such Prospectus or any such
advertising materials or sales literature.
The Marketing Agent
Agreement will have a one-year initial term and will automatically be renewed
for successive one-year periods, unless terminated on sixty days’ written notice
by the Sponsor, the Trust or the Marketing Agent.
Execution
Agent Agreement
The Sponsor and the
Execution Agent have entered into an agreement pursuant to which the Execution
Agent will provide certain execution services on behalf of the Trust. Pursuant
to the Execution Agent Agreement, and subject to specific instructions from the
Sponsor, the Execution Agent in its discretion is responsible for selecting the
method of transacting, the price, the Solana Counterparty or Counterparties and
the trading platform or venue (if any) for the execution of each purchase and
sale of SOL on behalf of the Trust. The Execution Agent has established policies
and procedures for identifying, monitoring and performing due diligence on
potential Solana Counterparties and trading platforms or venues, with entities
being added or removed from consideration on an ongoing basis. In addition, the
Execution Agent evaluates Solana Counterparties and trading platforms or venues
on a per-transaction basis. At the time it selects a Solana Counterparty for any
specific transaction, the Execution Agent may consider a number of factors in an
effort to seek to achieve “best execution,” including price, transaction costs,
speed, and likelihood of execution and settlement, taking into account the size
of the transaction and the experience and capabilities of the Solana
Counterparty or any other consideration relevant to the execution of the
relevant transaction, giving priority to transacting at a price that is the same
or similar to the Benchmark Price.
The Execution Agent shall
designate, validate and maintain the Trust’s digital asset wallets in accordance
with instructions received from the Sponsor. The Execution Agent shall cooperate
with the Trust’s administrator and custodian(s) as necessary and in accordance
with agreed upon procedures.
In addition to the duty of
care provisions contained in the Agreement, the Execution Agent is expressly
prohibited from using any information that it has gained about the Trust’s
trading activities in SOL pursuant to instructions to inform (in whole or in
part) any decision to purchase or sell SOL that it makes either for its own
account or on behalf of any other person. The Execution Agent shall not
aggregate any purchases or sales of SOL it makes on behalf of the Trust with any
purchases or sales of SOL it makes either for its
own account or on behalf
of any other person unless it does so in a manner that is not reasonably
expected to operate to the disadvantage of the Trust.
The Execution Agent
Agreement’s initial term will continue until December 22, 2025, and will
automatically be renewed for successive two-year periods, unless terminated on
one hundred eighty days’ written notice by either party.
Master
Services Agreement
The Sponsor has entered
into a Master Services Agreement with the Benchmark Provider (the “Master
Services Agreement”). Under the Master Services Agreement, the Benchmark
Provider grants to Fund a license to access and use the Benchmark in addition to
other services of the Benchmark Provider. The Master Services Agreement limits
the Benchmark Provider’s liability to exclude, among others, (i) loss of profits
and any indirect damages arising out of the Master Services Agreement and (ii)
any breach of the Benchmark Provider’s servers or systems, including any hacking
or unauthorized access to customer data. The Master Services Agreement also
includes master terms that apply to other agreements between the Trust and the
Benchmark Provider, including the Benchmark Provider Agreement, discussed
below.
The term of the Master
Services Agreement commenced on February 1, 2022 and will continue until the
termination of the Sponsor’s last outstanding subscription agreement with the
Benchmark Provider for services and proprietary data products. Each underlying
subscription agreement automatically renews after its initial period for
successive one-year periods until either party provides the other party with a
written notice to terminate that subscription agreement no less than ninety days
prior to the close of the then-current subscription period, unless otherwise
specified in such subscription agreement.
Calculation
Services Subscription Agreement
The Sponsor has entered
into a Calculation Services Subscription Agreement with the Benchmark Provider
(the “Benchmark Provider Agreement”). Under the Benchmark Provider Agreement,
the Benchmark Provider agrees to provide and update the Sponsor and other
identified parties with the value of SOL as calculated according to the
methodology described in the “Description of Lukka Prime” section above, at
agreed upon time frames, in exchange for a fixed annual fee payable by the
Sponsor.
The Calculation Services
Subscription Agreement has an initial period of one year commencing on its
effective date. The Calculation Services Subscription Agreement then
automatically renews as discussed above at “Material Contracts—Master Services
Agreement.”
U.S.
FEDERAL INCOME TAX CONSEQUENCES
The following is a
discussion of certain material U.S. federal income tax consequences that
generally will apply to the purchase, ownership and disposition of Shares by
Shareholders and U.S. federal income tax treatment of the Trust, and
constitutes, insofar as it describes matters of U.S. federal income tax or legal
conclusions relating thereto and subject to the limitations and qualifications
described therein, the opinion of Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP. The
discussion below is based on the Code, Treasury Regulations promulgated
thereunder and judicial and administrative interpretations of the Code, all as
in effect on the date of this Prospectus and all of which are subject to change
either prospectively or retroactively. The tax treatment of Shareholders may
vary depending upon their own particular circumstances. Certain Shareholders
(including but not limited to banks, financial institutions, insurance
companies, regulated investment companies, real estate investment trusts,
tax-exempt organizations, tax-exempt or tax-advantaged retirement plans or
accounts, brokers or dealers, traders, partnerships for U.S. federal income tax
purposes, persons holding Shares as a position in a “hedging,” “straddle,”
“conversion,”
“constructive sale” or
other integrated transaction for U.S. federal income tax purposes, persons whose
“functional currency” is not the U.S. dollar, persons required for U.S. federal
income tax purposes to accelerate the recognition of any item of gross income
with respect to the Shares as a result of such income being recognized on an
applicable financial statement, or other investors with special circumstances)
may be subject to special rules not discussed below. In addition, the following
discussion applies only to investors who will hold Shares as “capital assets”
(generally, property held for investment). Moreover, the discussion below does
not address the effect of any state, local or foreign tax law consequences that
may apply to an investment in Shares. Purchasers of Shares are urged to consult
their own tax advisers with respect to all U.S. federal, state, local and
foreign tax law considerations potentially applicable to their investment in
Shares.
For purposes of this
discussion, a “U.S. Shareholder” is a Shareholder that is:
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• |
an individual who is treated as a citizen or resident of the U.S. for
U.S. federal income tax purposes; |
|
• |
a corporation (or entity treated as a corporation for U.S. federal
income tax purposes) created or organized in or under the laws of the
U.S., any state thereof or the District of
Columbia; |
|
• |
an estate, the income of which is includible in gross income for U.S.
federal income tax purposes regardless of its source;
or |
|
• |
a trust, if a court within the U.S. is able to exercise primary
supervision over the administration of the trust and one or more U.S.
persons have the authority to control all substantial decisions of the
trust. |
For purposes of this
discussion, a “U.S. Tax-Exempt Shareholder” is a U.S. Shareholder that is exempt
from tax under Section 501(a) of the Code.
For purposes of this
discussion, a “Non-U.S. Shareholder” is a Shareholder that is (or is treated
as), for U.S. federal income tax purposes:
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• |
a nonresident alien individual; |
|
• |
a foreign corporation; or |
|
• |
an estate or trust whose income is not subject to U.S. federal income
tax on a net income basis. |
If a partnership or other
entity or arrangement treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax
purposes holds Shares, the tax treatment of a partner generally depends upon the
status of the partner and the activities of the partnership. If you are a
partner of a partnership holding Shares, the discussion below may not be
applicable, and the Trust urges you to consult your own tax adviser for the U.S.
federal income tax implications of the purchase, ownership and disposition of
such Shares.
Taxation of
the Trust
The Sponsor and the
Trustee will treat the Trust as a “grantor trust” for U.S. federal income tax
purposes. In the opinion of Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP, although
not free from doubt, if the Trust operates as expected, the Trust should be
classified as a “grantor trust” for U.S. federal income tax purposes. As a
result, the Trust itself should not be subject to U.S. federal income tax.
Instead, the Trust’s income and expenses should “flow through” to the
Shareholders, and the Trustee intends to report the Trust’s income, gains,
losses and deductions to the IRS on that basis. The opinion of Stradley Ronon
Stevens & Young, LLP is not binding on the IRS or any court. Accordingly,
there can be no assurance that the IRS will agree with the conclusions of
counsel’s opinion
and it is possible that
the IRS or another tax authority could assert a position contrary to one or all
of those conclusions and that a court could sustain that contrary position.
In November of 2025, the
U.S. Department of the Treasury and IRS issued a revenue procedure (the "Staking
Revenue Procedure") setting forth a safe harbor under which the Trust will
engage in certain staking activities in reliance on the Staking Revenue
Procedure. The Trust seeks to comply with the safe harbor and to maintain its
status as an investment trust and as a grantor trust for U.S. federal income tax
purposes. The requirements under the safe harbor and under existing law are
subject to interpretation and there can be no certainty that regulatory
authorities will agree with the Trust's interpretation and application of the
guidance or that the Trust will satisfy the Staking Revenue Procedure's safe
harbor conditions.
The treatment of staking
in a grantor trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes is still
developing.
As a grantor trust, the
Trust can undertake only certain types of activities. For example, generally,
the Trust cannot vary its investment portfolio to take advantage of market
fluctuations. The Trust may receive income from investment activities that do
not require such decision-making. If staking is treated for U.S. federal income
tax purposes as a passive ministerial and administrative activity, it should be
permissible for the Trust. If the Trust were viewed as undertaking the types of
activities that would not be allowable for U.S. federal income tax purposes,
then the Trust could lose its income tax status as a grantor trust, and the
Trust could be reclassified as a partnership. If the Trust were reclassified as
a partnership, a more complex reporting regime would apply, and Shareholders
would receive a Form K-1. If the Trust were reclassified as a partnership but
did not satisfy a safe harbor or exception to the publicly traded partnership
rules, it could be reclassified as a corporation, which would subject the Trust
to corporate level tax, and the Shareholder’s return on investment would likely
be affected.
As discussed below in
“Taxation of U.S. Shareholders,” if a hard fork, airdrop, staking or similar
event occurs in the Solana blockchain, the Sponsor will instruct the Trust to
immediately and irrevocably disclaim all rights to the IR Assets so created.
Although the Sponsor will instruct the Trust to immediately and irrevocably
disclaim all rights to the IR Assets so created, it is possible that
Shareholders may incur a federal income tax liability if, for example, the IRS
does not recognize such a disclaimer. The occurrence of a hard fork, airdrop,
staking or the Trust’s or Sponsor’s actions with respect thereto or with respect
to any alternative digital asset the Trust receives may affect the Trust’s
ability to qualify as a “grantor trust” for U.S. federal income tax
purposes.
Neither the Sponsor nor
the Trustee will request a ruling from the IRS with respect to the
classification of the Trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes or with respect
to any other matter. If the IRS were to assert successfully that the Trust is
not classified as a “grantor trust,” the Trust would likely be classified as a
partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes, which may affect the timing
and other tax consequences to the Shareholders, and might be classified as a
publicly traded partnership that would be taxable as a corporation for U.S.
federal income tax purposes, in which case the Trust would be taxed in the same
manner as a corporation on its taxable income and distributions to Shareholders
out of the earnings and profits of the Trust would be taxed to Shareholders as
ordinary dividend income (which may be eligible for preferential rates, in the
case of non-corporate taxpayers, or a dividends received deduction, in the case
of corporate taxpayers). However, due to the uncertain treatment of digital
currency for U.S. federal income tax purposes including with respect to the
Staking Revenue Procedure (discussed above), there can be no assurance in this
regard. Except as otherwise indicated, the remainder of this discussion assumes
that the Trust is classified as a grantor trust for U.S. federal income tax
purposes.
Taxation of
U.S. Shareholders
A Shareholder will be
treated, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, as if he or she directly owned a
pro rata share of the underlying
assets held in the Trust. A Shareholder will also be treated as if he or she
directly received their respective pro rata share of the Trust’s income, if any,
(including staking income, as applicable) and as if they directly incurred their
respective pro rata share of the Trust’s expenses. For purposes of this
discussion, and unless stated otherwise, it is assumed that all of a
Shareholder’s Shares are acquired on the same date and at the same price per
Share. A Shareholder that holds multiple lots of Shares, or that is
contemplating acquiring multiple lots of Shares, should consult his or her tax
advisers as to the determination of the tax basis and holding period for the
underlying SOL related to such Shares.
Current IRS guidance on
the treatment of convertible virtual currencies classifies SOL as “property”
that is not currency for U.S. federal income tax purposes and clarifies that SOL
could be held as a capital asset, but it does not address several other aspects
of the U.S. federal income tax treatment of SOL. Because SOL is a new
technological innovation, the U.S. federal income tax treatment of SOL or
transactions relating to investments in SOL may evolve and change from those
discussed below, possibly with retroactive effect. In this regard, the IRS
indicated that it has made it a priority to issue additional guidance related to
the taxation of virtual currency transactions, such as transactions involving
SOL. Whether any future guidance will adversely affect the U.S. federal income
tax treatment of an investment in SOL or in transactions relating to investments
in SOL is unknown. Moreover, future developments that may arise with respect to
digital currencies may increase the uncertainty with respect to the treatment of
digital currencies for U.S. federal income tax purposes. This discussion assumes
that any SOL the Trust may hold is properly treated for U.S. federal income tax
purposes as property that may be held as a capital asset and is not currency for
purposes of the provisions of the Code relating to foreign currency gain and
loss.
The Trust may use SOL to
pay the Sponsor Fee, which under current IRS guidance would be treated as a sale
of such SOL. Although the Trust generally does not intend to sell SOL for other
purposes, it may do so in connection with cash redemption transactions,
liquidating staking rewards for cash to pay quarterly distributions to
Shareholders, or if necessary to pay certain expenses that must be paid in cash.
As and when the Trust sells SOL (for example to pay any such expenses) or is
treated as selling SOL (for example, by using SOL to pay the Sponsor Fee), a
Shareholder will generally recognize a gain or loss in an amount equal to the
difference between (a) the Shareholder’s pro rata share of the amount realized
by the Trust upon the sale and (b) the Shareholder’s tax basis for its pro rata
share of the SOL that was sold. A Shareholder’s tax basis for its share of any
SOL sold by the Trust should generally be determined by multiplying the
Shareholder’s total basis for its share of all of the SOL held in the Trust
immediately prior to the sale, by a fraction the numerator of which is the
amount of SOL sold, and the denominator of which is the total amount of the SOL
held in the Trust immediately prior to the sale. After any such sale, a
Shareholder’s tax basis for its pro rata share of the SOL remaining in the Trust
should be equal to its tax basis for its share of the total amount of the SOL
held in the Trust immediately prior to the sale, less the portion of such basis
allocable to its share of the SOL that was sold or treated as sold.
Upon a Shareholder’s sale
of some or all of its Shares (other than a redemption), the Shareholder will be
treated as having sold the portion or all, respectively, of its pro rata share
of the SOL held in the Trust at the time of the sale that is attributable to the
Shares sold. Accordingly, the Shareholder generally will recognize a gain or
loss on the sale in an amount equal to the difference between (a) the amount
realized pursuant to the sale of the Shares, and (b) the Shareholder’s tax basis
for the portion of its pro rata share of the SOL held in the Trust at the time
of sale that is attributable to the Shares sold, as determined in the manner
described in the preceding paragraph. Based on current IRS guidance, such gain
or loss (as well as any gain or loss realized by a Shareholder on account of the
Trust selling SOL) will generally be long-term
or short-term capital gain
or loss, depending upon whether the Shareholder has a holding period of greater
than one year in its pro rata share of the SOL that was sold.
Gains or losses from the
sale of SOL to fund cash redemptions are expected to be treated as incurred by
the Shareholder that is being redeemed, and the amount of such gain or loss will
generally equal the difference between (a) the amount realized pursuant to the
sale of the SOL , and (b) the Shareholder’s tax basis for the portion of its pro
rata share of the SOL held in the Trust that is sold to fund the redemption, as
determined in the manner described in the paragraph that is two paragraphs above
this one. A redemption of some or all of a Shareholder’s Shares in exchange for
the cash received from such sale is not expected to be treated as a separate
taxable event to the Shareholder.
An in-kind redemption of
some or all of a Shareholder’s Shares in exchange for the underlying SOL
represented by the Shares redeemed generally will not be a taxable event to the
Shareholder. The Shareholder’s tax basis for the SOL received in the redemption
generally will be the same as the Shareholder’s tax basis for the portion of its
pro rata share of the SOL held in the Trust immediately prior to the in-kind
redemption that is attributable to the Shares redeemed. The Shareholder’s
holding period with respect to the SOL received generally should include the
period during which the Shareholder held the Shares redeemed in-kind. A
subsequent sale of the SOL received by the Shareholder generally will be a
taxable event, unless a nonrecognition provision of the Code or Treasury
Regulations applies to such sale.
After any sale or
redemption of less than all of a Shareholder’s Shares, the Shareholder’s tax
basis for its pro rata share of the SOL held in the Trust immediately after such
sale or redemption generally will be equal to its tax basis for its share of the
total amount of the SOL held in the Trust immediately prior to the sale or
redemption, less the portion of such basis that is taken into account in
determining the amount of gain or loss recognized by the Shareholder upon such
sale or redemption for cash or, in the case of an in-kind redemption, that is
treated as the basis of the SOL received by the Shareholder in the
redemption.
If a hard fork, airdrop or
similar event occurs in the Solana blockchain, the Sponsor will instruct the
Trust to immediately and irrevocably disclaim all rights to the IR Assets, as
discussed above. Although the Sponsor will instruct the Trust to immediately and
irrevocably disclaim all rights to the IR Assets so created, it is possible that
Shareholders may still incur a federal income tax liability as a result of a
hard fork, airdrop or similar event if, for example, the IRS does not recognize
such a disclaimer. Under current guidance, the IRS has held that a hard fork
resulting in the receipt of new units of a digital asset is a taxable event
giving rise to ordinary income. While the IRS has not addressed all situations
in which airdrops occur, it is clear from the reasoning of the IRS’s current
guidance that it generally would treat an airdrop as a taxable event giving rise
to ordinary income, and it is anticipated that any gain or loss from disposition
of any assets received in the airdrop would generally be treated as giving rise
to capital gain or loss that generally would be short-term capital gain or loss,
unless the holding period of those assets were treated as being greater than one
year as of the time they are sold.
If the Trust were to
receive staking awards, likely in the form of new SOL tokens, any such staking
rewards received by the Trust would be reportable to Shareholders as taxable
income under current IRS guidance. In 2023, the IRS released a revenue ruling
that provided guidance on digital asset staking, including guidance to the
effect that staking rewards will, under certain circumstances, be treated as
giving rise to taxable income (the “Staking Guidance”). Assuming that the Trust
is treated as a grantor trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes, any staking
income received will be a taxable event to beneficial owners of Shares. The
Trust receiving staking rewards could result in beneficial owners of Shares
incurring tax liability without an associated distribution from the Trust.
3.8%
Tax on Net Investment Income
The Code generally imposes
an additional 3.8% Medicare contribution tax on the net investment income of
certain individuals, trusts, and estates to the extent their income exceeds
certain threshold amounts. Shareholders are advised to consult their tax
advisors regarding the possible implications of this additional tax on their
investment in the Shares.
Brokerage
Fees and Trust Expenses
Any brokerage or other
transaction fee incurred by a Shareholder in purchasing Shares will be treated
as part of the Shareholder’s tax basis in the underlying assets of the Trust.
Similarly, any brokerage fee incurred by a Shareholder in selling Shares will
reduce the amount realized by the Shareholder with respect to the sale.
Shareholders will be
required to recognize the full amount of gain or loss upon a sale or deemed sale
of SOL by the Trust (as discussed above), even though some or all of the
proceeds of such sale are used by the Trustee to pay Trust expenses.
Shareholders may deduct their respective pro rata shares of each expense
incurred by the Trust to the same extent as if they directly incurred the
expense. Shareholders who are individuals, estates or trusts, however, may be
required to treat some or all of the expenses of the Trust as miscellaneous
itemized deductions. An individual may not deduct miscellaneous itemized
deductions. Similar rules apply to certain miscellaneous itemized deductions of
estates and trusts. In addition, such deductions may be subject to phase outs
and other limitations under applicable provisions of the Code.
Investment
by Certain Retirement Plans
Individual retirement
accounts (“IRAs”) and participant-directed accounts under tax-qualified
retirement plans are limited in the types of investments they may make under the
Code. Potential purchasers of Shares that are IRAs or participant-directed
accounts under a Code section 401(a) plan should consult with their own tax
advisors as to the potential tax consequences of a purchase of Shares.
U.S.
Information Reporting and Backup Withholding
The Trustee will file
certain information returns with the IRS, and provide certain tax-related
information to Shareholders, in connection with the Trust. To the extent
required by applicable regulations, each Shareholder will be provided with
information regarding its allocable portion of the Trust’s annual income,
expenses, gains and losses (if any). A U.S. Shareholder may be subject to U.S.
backup withholding tax in certain circumstances unless it provides its taxpayer
identification number and complies with certain certification procedures.
Non-U.S. Shareholders may have to comply with certification procedures to
establish that they are not a U.S. person, and some Non-U.S. Shareholders may be
required to meet certain information reporting or certification requirements
imposed by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, in order to avoid certain
information reporting and withholding tax requirements.
The amount of any backup
withholding will be allowed as a credit against a Shareholder’s U.S. federal
income tax liability and may entitle the Shareholder to a refund, provided that
the required information is furnished to the IRS in a timely manner.
U.S.
Federal Income Taxation of U.S. Tax-Exempt Shareholders
The Trust’s investments
and activities relating thereto may cause a U.S. Tax-Exempt Shareholder to
realize UBTI. In the absence of any guidance on the matter, a U.S. Tax-Exempt
Shareholder’s share of income
from a hard fork, airdrop,
or similar event with respect to digital currencies may be treated as UBTI. If
the Trust were to incur liabilities, and thus, be treated as holding property
constituting debt-financed property (generally, assets purchased with borrowed
funds), income attributable to such property generally would constitute
UBTI.
Tax-Exempt Shareholders
should consult their tax advisors with respect to the U.S. federal income tax
consequences of an investment in the Shares.
U.S.
Federal Income Taxation of Non-U.S. Shareholders
The Trust generally does
not expect to generate taxable income except for gain (if any) upon the sale or
transfer of SOL. A Non-U.S. Shareholder generally will not be subject to U.S.
federal income tax with respect to gain recognized upon the sale or other
disposition of the Shares, or upon the sale or transfer of SOL by the Trust,
unless (i) the Non-U.S. Shareholder is an individual and is present in the U.S.
for one hundred and eighty-three (183) days or more during the taxable year of
the sale, transfer or other disposition, and the gain is treated as being from
U.S. sources; or (ii) the gain is (or is treated as) effectively connected with
the conduct by the Non-U.S. Shareholder of a trade or business in the United
States (“ECI”).
A Non-U.S. Shareholder’s
allocable share of U.S. source dividend, interest, rental and other FDAP income
that is not ECI generally will be subject to U.S. federal withholding tax at a
rate of 30% (unless reduced or eliminated by an applicable income tax treaty or
statutory exemption). There is currently no guidance as to whether income
recognized by the Trust as a result of a fork, airdrop or similar event would
constitute U.S. source FDAP.
Non-U.S. Shareholders
should consult their tax advisors with respect to the U.S. federal income tax
consequences of an investment in the Shares.
Taxation in
Jurisdictions Other Than the U.S.
Prospective purchasers of
Shares that are based in or acting out of a jurisdiction other than the U.S. are
advised to consult their own tax advisers as to the tax consequences under the
laws of such jurisdiction (or any other jurisdiction to which they are subject)
of their purchase, holding, sale and redemption of or any other dealing in
Shares and, in particular, as to whether any value added tax, other consumption
tax or transfer tax is payable in relation to such purchase, holding, sale,
redemption or other dealing.
PROSPECTIVE
SHAREHOLDERS ARE URGED TO CONSULT THEIR TAX ADVISERS BEFORE DECIDING WHETHER TO
INVEST IN THE SHARES OF THE TRUST.
PURCHASES BY
EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS
The Employee Retirement
Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) and/or Section 4975 of the Code impose
certain requirements on: (i) employee benefit plans and certain other plans and
arrangements, including individual retirement accounts and annuities, Keogh
plans and certain collective investment funds or insurance company general or
separate accounts in which such plans or arrangements are invested, that are
subject to Title I of ERISA and/or Section 4975 of the Code (collectively,
“Plans”); and (ii) persons who are fiduciaries with respect to the investment of
assets treated as “plan assets” within the meaning of U.S. Department of Labor
regulation 29 C.F.R. § 2510.3-101, as modified by Section 3(42) of ERISA (the
“Plan Assets Regulation”), of a Plan. Investments by Plans are subject to the
fiduciary requirements and the applicability of prohibited transaction
restrictions under ERISA and the Code.
“Governmental plans”
within the meaning of Section 3(32) of ERISA, certain “church plans” within the
meaning of Section 3(33) of ERISA and “non-U.S. plans” described in Section
4(b)(4) of ERISA, while not subject to the fiduciary responsibility and
prohibited transaction provisions of Title I of ERISA or Section 4975 of the
Code, may be subject to federal, state, local, non-U.S. or other law or
regulation that are substantially similar to the foregoing provisions of ERISA
and the Code. Fiduciaries of any such plans are advised to consult with their
counsel prior to an investment in the Shares.
In considering an
investment of a portion of Plan assets in the Shares, the Plan fiduciary
responsible for making such investment should carefully consider, taking into
account the facts and circumstances of the Plan, the “Risk Factors” discussed
above and whether such investment is consistent with its fiduciary
responsibilities. The Plan fiduciary should consider, among other issues,
whether: (1) the fiduciary has the authority to make the investment under the
appropriate governing plan instrument; (2) the investment could constitute a
direct or indirect non-exempt prohibited transaction with a “party in interest”
or “disqualified person” within the meaning of ERISA and Section 4975 of the
Code respectively; (3) the investment is in accordance with the Plan’s funding
objectives; and (4) such investment is appropriate for the Plan under the
fiduciary standards under ERISA including investment prudence and
diversification, taking into account the overall investment policy of the Plan,
the composition of the Plan’s investment portfolio and the Plan’s need for
sufficient liquidity to pay benefits when due.
By investing, each Plan
shall be deemed to acknowledge and agree that: (a) none of the Sponsor, the
Trustee, the Solana Custodian or any of their respective employees,
representatives, agents or affiliates (the “Transaction Parties”) has, through
this report and related materials, provided any investment advice within the
meaning of Section 3(21) of ERISA to the Plan in connection with the decision to
purchase, acquire, hold or dispose of such Shares; (b) no Transaction Party is
intended to be treated as fiduciary to the Plan with respect to any decision by
the Plan to purchase, acquire, hold or dispose of the Shares; and (c) no
Transaction Party is expected to serve in a trusted advisor role with respect to
the Plan’s investment in the Shares.
INFORMATION
YOU SHOULD KNOW
This Prospectus contains
information you should consider when making an investment decision about the
Shares. You should rely only on the information contained in this Prospectus.
None of the Trust or the Sponsor has authorized any person to provide you with
different information and, if anyone provides you with different or inconsistent
information, you should not rely on it. This Prospectus is not an offer to sell
the Shares in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale of the Shares is not
permitted.
The information contained
in this Prospectus was obtained from the Trust, the Sponsor, the Solana
Custodian, the Execution Agent and other sources the Trust believes to be
reliable.
You should disregard
anything the Trust or the Sponsor said in an earlier document that is
inconsistent with what is included in this Prospectus.
You should not assume that
the information in this Prospectus is current as of any date other than the date
on the front page of this Prospectus.
Cross references are
included in this Prospectus to captions in these materials where you can find
further related discussions. The table of contents tells you where to find these
captions.
WHERE
YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION
The Trust has filed a
registration statement on Form S-1 with the SEC under the Securities Act. This
Prospectus does not contain all of the information set forth in the registration
statement (including the exhibits to the registration statement), parts of which
have been omitted in accordance with the rules and regulations of the SEC. For
further information about the Trust or the Shares, please refer to the
registration statement, which is available online at www.sec.gov.
Information about the
Trust and the Shares can also be obtained from the Trust’s website, which is
www.invesco.com/QSOL. The Trust’s website address is only provided here as a
convenience to you and the information contained on or connected to the website
is not part of this Prospectus or the registration statement of which this
Prospectus is part. The Trust is subject to the informational requirements of
the Exchange Act and will file certain reports and other information with the
SEC under the Exchange Act.
The reports and other
information are available online at www.sec.gov.
INVESCO
CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC PRIVACY NOTICE
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FACTS
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WHAT DOES INVESCO DO
WITH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?*
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Why? |
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Financial companies choose how they share
your personal information. Federal law gives consumers the right to limit
some but not all sharing. Federal law also requires us to tell you how we
collect, share, and protect your personal information. Please read this
notice carefully to understand what we do.
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What? |
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The types of personal information we
collect and share depend on the product or service you have with us. This
information can include:
• Social
Security number and income
• Transaction
history and investment experience
• Investment
experience and assets
When you are no longer our customer, we continue to
share information about you according to our policies. |
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How? |
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All financial companies need to share
customers’ personal information to run their everyday business. In the
section below, we list the reasons financial companies can share their
customers’ personal information; the reasons Invesco chooses to share; and
whether you can limit this sharing. |
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Reasons
we can share your personal information |
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Does
Invesco share? |
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Can
you limit this sharing? |
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For our everyday
business purposes—
such as to process your transactions,
maintain your account(s), respond to court orders and legal
investigations, or report to credit bureaus |
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Yes |
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No |
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For our marketing
purposes—
to offer our products and services to
you |
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No |
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We do not share |
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For joint marketing
with other financial companies |
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No |
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We do not share |
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For our affiliates’
everyday business purposes—
information about your transactions and
experiences |
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No |
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We do not share |
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For our affiliates’
everyday business purposes—
information about your credit
worthiness |
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No |
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We do not share |
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For our affiliates to
market to you |
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No |
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We do not share |
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For non-affiliates to
market to you |
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No |
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We do not share |
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Questions?
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Call 1-800-959-4246 (toll
free). |
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This privacy notice applies to
individuals who obtain or have obtained a financial product or service
from the Invesco family of companies. For a complete list of Invesco
entities, please see the section titled “Who is providing this notice” on
page 2. |
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Who
we are |
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Who is providing this
notice? |
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Invesco Advisers, Inc., Invesco Private
Capital, Inc., Invesco Senior Secured Management, Inc., WL Ross & Co.
LLC, Invesco Distributors, Inc., Invesco Managed Accounts, LLC, and the
Invesco family of mutual funds. |
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What
we do |
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How does Invesco
protect my personal information? |
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To protect your personal information from
unauthorized access and use, we use security measures that comply with
federal law. These measures include computer safeguards and secured files
and buildings. |
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How does Invesco
collect my personal information? |
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We collect your personal information, for
example, when you
• Open
an account or give us your contact information
• Make
deposits or withdrawals from your account or give us your income
information
• Make
a wire transfer
We also collect your personal information
from others, such as credit bureaus, affiliates or other
companies. |
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Why can’t I limit all
sharing? |
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Federal law gives you the right to limit
only
• Sharing
for affiliates’ everyday business purposes—information about your
creditworthiness
• Affiliates
from using your information to market to you
• Sharing
for nonaffiliates to market to you |
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Definitions |
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Affiliates |
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Companies related by common ownership or
control. They can be financial and nonfinancial companies.
Invesco does not
share with our affiliates so that they can market to you. |
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Nonaffiliates |
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Companies not related by common ownership
or control. They can be financial and nonfinancial companies.
Invesco does not
share with non-affiliates so that they can market to you. |
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Joint
marketing |
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A formal agreement between nonaffiliated
financial companies that together market financial products or services to
you.
Invesco doesn’t
jointly market. |
REPORT
OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Managers of Invesco Capital Management LLC (as Sponsor of
Invesco Galaxy Solana ETF) and Shareholder of Invesco Galaxy Solana ETF
Opinion on the Financial
Statement
We have audited the accompanying statement of assets and liabilities of
Invesco Galaxy Solana ETF (the "Trust") as of October 16, 2025, including the
related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statement”). In our
opinion, the financial statement presents fairly, in all material respects, the
financial position of the Trust as of October 16, 2025 in conformity with
accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Basis for Opinion
This financial statement is the responsibility of the Trust’s management.
Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Trust’s financial statement
based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to
be independent with respect to the Trust in accordance with the U.S. federal
securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and
Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit of this financial statement in accordance with the
standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the
audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statement is
free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud.
Our audit included performing procedures to assess the risks of material
misstatement of the financial statement, whether due to error or fraud, and
performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included
examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in
the financial statement. Our audit also included evaluating the accounting
principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as
evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statement. We believe that
our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
/s/ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Chicago, Illinois
October 31, 2025
We have served as the Trust’s auditor since 2025.
Invesco
Galaxy Solana ETF
Statement
of Assets and Liabilities
October
16, 2025
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Assets |
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Cash held by custodian |
$100,000 |
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Total assets |
$100,000 |
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Liabilities |
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Total liabilities |
$— |
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Commitments and Contingencies (Note 6) |
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Net Assets |
$100,000 |
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Shares outstanding |
4,000 |
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Net asset value per share |
$25.00 |
See
accompanying Notes to Financial Statement which are an integral part of the
financial statement.
Invesco
Galaxy Solana ETF
Notes
to Financial Statement
October
16, 2025
Note 1 –
Organization
Invesco
Galaxy Solana ETF (the “Trust”) is a Delaware statutory trust, formed on June
12, 2025, pursuant to the Delaware Statutory Trust Act (“DSTA”). The Trust
continuously issues common shares representing fractional undivided beneficial
interest in and ownership of the Trust. The Trust operates pursuant to its
Declaration of Trust and Trust Agreement, dated as of June 12, 2025 (the “Trust
Agreement”). CSC Delaware Trust Company, a Delaware trust company, is the
Delaware trustee of the Trust (the “Trustee”). The Trust is managed and
controlled by Invesco Capital Management LLC (the “Sponsor”).
On
October 16, 2025, Invesco Ltd., the Seed Capital Investor, subject to certain
conditions, purchased 4,000 Shares in exchange for $100,000, which comprise the
initial purchase of the Trust’s Shares. Delivery of the Shares was made on
October 16, 2025. Through October 16, 2025, the Trust had no operations other
than those related to its organization and registration and the sale of Shares
to the Seed Capital Investor. As of October 16, 2025, the Seed Capital Investor
owns one hundred percent of the outstanding Shares. The Trust has an unlimited
number of shares authorized for issuance.
The
Trust’s investment objective is to reflect the performance of the spot price of
Solana (“SOL”) as measured using Lukka Prime Solana Reference Rate (the
“Benchmark”), as adjusted to reflect the SOL staking rewards earned by the Trust
and the Trust’s expenses and other liabilities. The Trust expects to outperform
the Benchmark before taking its expenses and liabilities into account due to its
plans to receive SOL staking rewards. In seeking to achieve its investment
objective, the Trust will hold SOL and will seek to stake substantially all of
its SOL to earn staking rewards to the extent the Trust, in the Sponsor’s sole
discretion, can engage in staking without undue legal or regulatory risk,
including jeopardizing its status as a grantor trust for U.S. federal income tax
purposes (the “Staking Condition”). The Trust will value its Shares each day
when the Exchange is open for regular trading (a “Business Day”) as of 4:00 p.m.
ET. Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC (the “Solana Custodian”) will hold all
of the Trust’s SOL on the Trust’s behalf as Solana Custodian.
Note
2 – Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
The
financial statements of the Trust have been prepared using accounting principles
generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”). The Trust is
considered an
investment
company under U.S. GAAP for financial statement purposes and follows the
accounting and reporting guidance applicable to investment companies in the
Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification Topic
946, Financial Services— Investment Companies, but is not registered,
and is not required to be registered, under the Investment Company Act of 1940,
as amended.
The
preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires
management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of
assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statement. Actual results
could differ from those estimates. In addition, the Trust monitors for material
events or transactions that may occur or become known after the period-end date
and before the date the financial statements are issued.
The
Trust represents a single operating segment. Subject to the oversight and, when
applicable, approval of the Board of Managers, the Trust's Sponsor acts as the
Trust's chief operating decision maker (“CODM”), assessing performance and
making decisions about resource allocation within the Trust. The CODM monitors
the operating results of the Trust as a whole in view of the Trust’s operations
in accordance with the terms of its prospectus based on a single, defined
investment strategy. The financial information provided to and reviewed by the
CODM is consistent with that presented in the Trust's financial
statements.
| D. |
Cash and Cash
Equivalents |
The
Trust defines cash as cash held by the Cash Custodian (as defined below). There
were no cash equivalents held by the Trust as of October 16, 2025.
The Sponsor
is responsible for all routine operational, administrative and other ordinary
expenses of the Trust, including, but not limited to, the Trustee’s fees, the
fees of the Bank of New York Mellon (the “Administrator,” “Transfer
Agent,” and “Cash Custodian”), the fees of the Solana Custodian, the fees of
Galaxy Digital Funds LLC (the “Execution Agent”), fees associated with listing
Shares on Cboe BZX (the “Exchange”), Securities and Exchange Commission
registration fees, printing and mailing costs, legal costs and audit fees.
The Trust
will pay the Sponsor a unified fee of 0.25% per annum (the “Sponsor Fee”) as
compensation for services performed under the Trust Agreement. The Trust’s only
ordinary recurring expense is the Sponsor Fee.
The
Sponsor Fee will be accrued daily and paid monthly in arrears in U.S dollars on
the first Business Day of the month and will be calculated by the Administrator.
The Sponsor paid the costs of the Trust’s organization.
In
certain cases, the Trust will pay for some expenses in addition to the Sponsor’s
fee. These exceptions include expenses not assumed by the Sponsor (i.e.,
expenses other than those identified in the first paragraph of Section E of this
Note 2), litigation and indemnification expenses, judgments, transactional
expenses, taxes and other expenses not expected to be incurred in the ordinary
course of the Trust’s business.
The
Sponsor intends to take the position that the Trust is properly treated as a
grantor trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Assuming that the Trust is a
grantor trust, the Trust will not be subject to U.S. federal income tax and,
therefore, no provision for federal income taxes is required. Rather, if the
Trust is a grantor trust, each beneficial owner of Shares will be treated as
directly owning its pro rata share of the Trust’s assets and a pro rata portion
of the Trust’s income, gain, losses and deductions will “flow through” to each
beneficial owner of Shares.
Note 3 –
Concentration Risk
Unlike other
trusts that may invest in diversified assets, the Trust’s investment strategy is
concentrated in a single asset: SOL. This concentration maximizes the degree of
the Trust’s exposure to a variety of market risks associated with SOL, including
the rise or fall in its price, sometimes rapidly or unexpectedly. By
concentrating its investment strategy solely in SOL, any losses suffered as a
result of a decrease in the value of SOL can be expected to reduce the value of
an interest in the Trust and will not be offset by other gains if the Trust were
to invest in underlying assets that were diversified. There is no assurance that
SOL will maintain its long-term value in terms of purchasing power in the
future. In the event that the price of SOL declines, the Sponsor expects the
value of an investment in the Shares to decline proportionately. Each of these
events could have a material effect on the Trust’s financial position and the
results of its operations.
Note 4 –
Service Providers and Related Party Agreements
The
Trustee
CSC Delaware
Trust Company, a Delaware trust company, acts as the Trustee of the Trust as
required to create a Delaware statutory trust in accordance with the Trust
Agreement and the DSTA. Under the Trust Agreement, the duties of the Trustee are
limited to (i) accepting legal process served on the Trust in the State of
Delaware and (ii) at the direction of the Sponsor, the
execution of any certificates
required to be filed with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware which
the Trustee is required to execute under the DSTA.
The
Sponsor
Invesco
Capital Management LLC is the Sponsor of the Trust. The Sponsor arranged for the
creation of the Trust and is responsible for the ongoing registration of the
Shares for their public offering, the listing of Shares on the Exchange and
valuing the SOL held by the Trust. The Sponsor is a limited liability company
formed in the state of Delaware on February 7, 2003, and is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Invesco Ltd. Invesco Ltd. and its subsidiaries, including the
Sponsor, are an independent global investment management group.
To cover the
Sponsor Fee discussed in Section E of Note 2 above and any extraordinary
expenses not assumed by the Sponsor, the Sponsor or its delegate will cause the
Trust (or its delegate) to instruct the Execution Agent to convert SOL held by
the Trust into U.S. dollars. The Trust is not responsible for paying any costs
associated with the transfer of SOL to or from the Trust in connection with
paying the Sponsor Fee or in connection with creation and redemption
transactions.
The
Administrator
The Bank of
New York Mellon (“BNYM “) serves as the Trust’s Administrator. Under the trust
administration and accounting agreement, the Administrator provides necessary
administrative, tax and accounting services and financial reporting for the
maintenance and operations of the Trust, including calculating the NAV of the
Trust, determining the net assets of the Trust, and calculating the size of the
creation baskets.
The
Transfer Agent
BNYM also
serves as the Transfer Agent for the Trust. The Transfer Agent is responsible
for (1) issuing and redeeming Shares in connection with creation and redemption
transactions, (2) responding to correspondence by Shareholders and others
relating to its duties, (3) maintaining Shareholder accounts and (4) making
periodic reports to the Trust.
The
Solana Custodian
Coinbase
Custody Trust Company, LLC serves as the Trust’s Solana Custodian. Under the
Solana Custody Agreement, the Solana Custodian is responsible for (1)
safekeeping all of the SOL owned by the Trust, (2) opening an account that holds
the Trust’s SOL and (3) facilitating the transfer of SOL required for the
operation of the Trust, as directed by the Sponsor. The Solana Custodian is
chartered as a limited purpose trust company by the New York State Department of
Financial Services (“NYSDFS”) and is authorized by the NYSDFS to provide digital
asset custody services. The Solana Custodian is a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Coinbase Global, Inc.
The
Cash Custodian
BNYM serves
as the Trust’s Cash Custodian. Under the Cash Custody Agreement, the Cash
Custodian is responsible for holding the Trust’s cash in connection with
creation and redemption transactions effected in cash. The Cash Custodian is a
New York state-chartered bank and a member of the Federal Reserve System.
The
Marketing Agent
Invesco
Distributors, Inc. (the “Marketing Agent”) is responsible for: (1) working with
the Transfer Agent to review and approve, or reject, purchase and redemption
orders of Shares placed by Authorized Participants with the Transfer Agent; and
(2) reviewing and approving the marketing materials prepared by the Trust for
compliance with applicable SEC and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
advertising laws, rules, and regulations.
The
Execution Agent
The Sponsor
has entered into an agreement with Galaxy Digital Funds LLC, a subsidiary of
Galaxy Digital LP (“Galaxy”), to serve as Execution Agent. The Trust from time
to time will be required to sell SOL in such quantities as necessary to permit
payment of the Sponsor Fee and any Trust expenses and liabilities not assumed by
the Sponsor. The Sponsor has engaged the Execution Agent to sell SOL on the
Trust’s behalf in such circumstances. The Sponsor or its delegate will cause the
Trust (or its delegate) to instruct the Execution Agent to sell SOL at
approximately the price at which it is valued by the Trust and in the smallest
amounts required to permit such payments as they become due, with the intention
of minimizing the Trust’s holdings of assets other than SOL. Accordingly, the
amount of SOL to be sold may vary from time to time depending on the level of
the Trust’s expenses and liabilities and the market price of SOL. The Trust also
may utilize the services of the Execution Agent to purchase or sell SOL in
connection with cash creations and redemptions. In addition, as part of this
agreement, the Execution Agent has agreed to co-brand and co-market the Trust,
and the Sponsor has licensed the use of certain Galaxy trademarks, service marks
and trade names in connection with the Trust.
Galaxy is a
subsidiary of Galaxy Digital Holdings LP (“Galaxy Holdings”). Galaxy Digital
Holdings Ltd., which holds a limited partner interest in Galaxy Holdings, is
listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “GLXY.”
Note 5 –
Organization and Offering Costs
The Sponsor
has agreed to pay the organizational and initial offering costs of the Trust and
the Trust will not be obligated to reimburse the Sponsor. The organizational and
initial offering costs include preparation and filing of incorporation
documents, bylaws, declarations of trust, registration statements, state and
federal registration of shares and audit fees. As a result, the Trust’s
financial statements will not reflect these organizational and initial offering
costs.
Note 6 –
Commitments and Contingencies
The Trust’s
organizational documents provide for the Trust to indemnify the Sponsor and any
affiliate of the Sponsor that provides services to the Trust to the maximum
extent permitted by applicable law, subject to certain exceptions for
disqualifying conduct by the Sponsor or such an affiliate. The Trust’s maximum
exposure under these arrangements is unknown as this would involve future claims
that may be made against the Trust that have not yet occurred.
Note 7 –
Subsequent Events
The Trust has evaluated the
impact of all subsequent events through October 31, 2025, the date the financial
statement was available for issuance and has determined that there were no
subsequent events requiring adjustment or additional disclosure in the financial
statement.
APPENDIX
A
GLOSSARY OF DEFINED TERMS
In this Prospectus, each
of the following terms have the meanings set forth after such term:
“1940 Act”: Investment
Company Act of 1940, as amended.
“Administrator”: The Bank
of New York Mellon.
“Administrator
Indemnitee”: The Administrator and any affiliate of the Administrator.
“Airdrop”: An event
wherein the promoters of a new digital asset announce to holders of another
digital asset that they will be entitled to claim a certain amount of the new
digital asset for free simply by virtue of having held the original digital
asset at a certain point in time.
“ASC Topic 820”: The
Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification Topic
820, “Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures”.
“Alternative Benchmark”:
An index or standard other than the Benchmark.
“AUL”: Authorized User
List.
“Authorized Participant”:
A financial firm that is authorized to purchase or redeem Creation Baskets from
or to the Trust.
“Authorized Participant
Agreement”: The authorized participant agreement by and among the Trust, the
Sponsor and the Authorized Participant(s).
“Benchmark”: Lukka Prime
Solana Reference Rate.
“Benchmark Pricing
Source”: A SOL pricing source included in the Benchmark.
“Benchmark Provider”:
Lukka, Inc.
“Benchmark Provider
Agreement”: Calculation Services Subscription Agreement between the Sponsor and
the Benchmark Provider.
“BES”: Base Exchange
Score.
“BGP”: Border gateway
protocol.
“BNYM”: The Bank of New
York Mellon.
“BSA”: U.S. Bank Secrecy
Act, as amended.
“Business Day”: Any day
other than a Saturday, Sunday and any day when the Exchange is closed for
regular trading.
“Cash Custodian”: The Bank
of New York Mellon.
“Cash Custody Agreement”:
Custody agreement by and between the Cash Custodian and the Trust.
“CBDCs”: Central bank
digital currencies.
“Cboe”: Cboe BZX.
“CEA”: Commodity Exchange
Act of 1936, as amended.
“CFIX”: Bloomberg Crypto
Price Fixings.
“CFPB”: Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau, an independent agency with the mandate to implement and
enforce federal consumer financial law.
“CFTC”: Commodity Futures
Trading Commission, an independent agency with the mandate to regulate commodity
futures and options in the U.S.
“Code”: Internal Revenue
Code of 1986, as amended.
“Coinbase”: Coinbase,
Inc.
“Coinbase Global”:
Coinbase Global, Inc.
“Connected Trading Venue”:
Third-party trading platform or other trading platform where the Prime Broker
routes orders to buy and sell SOL on behalf of the Trust if the Execution Agent
opts to utilize the Prime Broker to execute such orders.
“Creation Basket”: A block
of 5,000 Shares used by the Trust to issue or redeem Shares.
“Creation Basket Deposit”:
The total deposit required to create each Creation Basket.
“CTA”: Consolidated Tape
Association
“CurrencyShares Trusts”:
Exchange-traded funds for which ISP serves as sponsor.
“DAO”: Decentralized
autonomous organization.
“DApp”: Decentralized
applications.
“DCM”: Designated contract
market.
“DeFi”: Decentralized
financial services.
“DSTA”: Delaware Statutory
Trust Act.
“DTC”: Depository Trust
Company. DTC will act as the securities depository for the Shares.
“DTC Participant”: An
entity that has an account with DTC.
“ECI”: Effectively
Connected Income.
“ERISA”: The Employee
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
“ETHW”: EthereumPoW
network.
“ETP”: Exchange-traded
product.
“Examinations”: The U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Examinations.
“Exchange”: Cboe
BZX.
“Exchange Act”: The
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
“Execution Agent”: Galaxy
Digital Funds LLC
“Expenses”: losses,
damages, liabilities, claims, actions, suits, costs, expenses, disbursements
(including the reasonable fees and expenses of counsel), taxes and penalties of
any kind and nature whatsoever.
“FASB”: Financial
Accounting Standards Board.
“FDAP”: Fixed or
determinable annual or periodical gains, profits and income.
“FDIC”: Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation.
“FinCEN”: The Financial
Crimes Enforcement Network.
“FINRA”: Financial
Industry Regulatory Authority, formerly the National Association of Securities
Dealers.
“FMV”: Fair market
value.
“FTX”: FTX Trading
Ltd.
“Galaxy”: Galaxy Digital
LP.
“Galaxy Holdings”: Galaxy
Digital Holdings LP.
“Genesis”: Genesis Global
Capital, LLC.
“ICO”: Initial coin
offering.
“IFRS”: International
Financial Reporting Standards Foundation
“IIV”: Intraday indicative
value.
“Incidental Rights”:
Rights to acquire, or otherwise establish dominion and control over, any virtual
currency or other asset or right, which rights are incident to the Trust’s
ownership of SOL and arise without any action of the Trust or of the Sponsor on
behalf of the Trust.
“Indemnified Person”: The
Trustee as well as any officers, directors, employees and agents of the
Trustee.
“Indirect Participants”:
Banks, brokers, dealers and trust companies that clear through or maintain a
custodial relationship with a DTC Participant, either directly or
indirectly.
“Initial Seed Shares”:
4,000 shares of the Trust sold to Invesco Ltd. in connection with the Trust’s
launch.
“Invesco”: Invesco Capital
Management LLC.
“Invesco ETFs”: Invesco
Exchange Traded Fund Trust, Invesco Exchange-Traded Fund Trust II, Invesco India
Exchange-Traded Fund Trust, Invesco Actively Managed Exchange-Traded Fund Trust,
Invesco Actively Managed Exchange-Traded Commodity Fund Trust, and Invesco
Exchange-Traded Self-Indexed Fund Trusts.
“Invesco Funds”: Mutual
funds advised by Invesco Advisers, Inc., a registered investment adviser.
“IR Assets”: Virtual
currency tokens, or other asset or right, acquired by the Trust through the
exercise (subject to the applicable provisions of the Trust Agreement) of any
Incidental Right.
“IRAs”: Individual
retirement accounts.
“IRS”: U.S. Internal
Revenue Service.
“ISP”: Invesco Specialized
Products, LLC.
“JOBS Act”: Jumpstart Our
Business Startups Act.
“KYT”:
Know-Your-Transaction.
“Losses”: Losses, claims,
demands, liabilities, damages and expenses (including the costs of investigating
or defending any alleged losses, claims, demands, liabilities, damages or
expenses and any reasonable counsel fees incurred in connection
therewith).
“Marketing Agent”: Invesco
Distributors, Inc.
“Marketing Agent
Indemnitees”: The Marketing Agent, its affiliates and each of their respective
members, managers, directors, officers, employees, representatives and any
person who controls or previously controlled the Marketing Agent within the
meaning of Section 15 of the Securities Act.
“Marketing Materials”:
Certain Trust marketing materials submitted by the Trust for review.
“Master Services
Agreement”: Master Services Agreement between the Sponsor and the Benchmark
Provider.
“Merge”: The 2022 fork
that transitioned the Ethereum network from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism
to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
“NAV”: Net asset value per
share of the Trust.
“NFA”: National Futures
Association.
“NFT”: Non-fungible
token.
“NYSDFS”: The New York
State Department of Financial Services.
“OFAC”: The Office of
Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury.
“OTC”: Over-the-counter
markets.
“PCAOB”: Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board.
“PIOB”: Benchmark
Provider’s Price Integrity Oversight Board.
“Plans”: Employee benefit
plans and certain other plans and arrangements, including individual retirement
accounts and annuities, Keogh plans and certain collective investment funds or
insurance company general or separate accounts in which such plans or
arrangements are invested, that are subject to Title I of ERISA and/or Section
4975 of the Code.
“PoS”:
Proof-of-Stake.
“PoW”:
Proof-of-Work.
“Prime Broker”: Coinbase,
Inc.
“Prime Custody Vault”:
“Cold storage” environment where the private keys associated with the Trust’s
SOL are generated and secured.
“Redemption Order Date”:
The date a redemption order is received in satisfactory form and approved by the
Transfer Agent.
“Relevant Coinbase
Entities”: Coinbase and Coinbase Global Inc.
“SEC”: The U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission.
“Securities Act”:
Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
“Seed Capital Investor”:
Invesco Ltd.
“Seed Creation Baskets:” 5
Creation Baskets anticipated to be purchased by the Seed Capital Investor.
“Selling Shareholder”:
Invesco Ltd. (also referred to as the Seed Capital Investor) when it sells some
or all of the Shares held by it pursuant to the registration statement for the
Trust.
“Shareholders”: Holders of
Shares.
“Shares”: Common shares
representing fractional undivided beneficial interests in the Trust.
“SIPC”: Securities
Investor Protection Corporation.
“SOC”: Systems and
Organizational Control.
“SOL”: The digital asset
within the Solana network.
“Solana Custody
Agreement”: Prime brokerage and custody agreement between the Trust and Coinbase
Custody Trust Company, LLC.
“Solana”: The system as a
whole that is involved in maintaining the ledger of SOL ownership and
facilitating the transfer of SOL among parties.
“Solana Access Persons”:
Execution Agent personnel who have access to information about creation and
redemption activity in Shares of the Trust.
“Solana Counterparty”:
Digital asset trading platforms or counterparties with whom the Execution Agent
transacts in acquiring or disposing of SOL on behalf of the Trust.
“Solana Custodian”:
Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC.
“Solana Client”: A
software application that implements the Solana network specification and
communicates with the Solana network.
“Sponsor”: Invesco Capital
Management LLC.
“Sponsor Fee”: The unified
fee of 0.25% per annum paid by the Trust to the Sponsor.
“Sponsor Indemnified
Person”: The Sponsor, in its capacity as Sponsor, and any of the officers,
directors, employees, affiliates and agents of the Sponsor.
“Trading Balance”: Trading
account that may be used to maintain the Trust’s SOL when it is being processed
in connection with certain creation or redemption transactions or it is being
sold.
“Transaction Parties”: The
Sponsor, the Trustee, the Solana Custodian or any of their respective
affiliates.
“Transfer Agent”: The Bank
of New York Mellon.
“Trust”: Invesco Galaxy
Solana ETF.
“Trust Agreement”: Amended
and Restated Declaration of Trust and Trust Agreement dated as of November 28,
2025.
“Trustee”: CSC Delaware
Trust Company, a Delaware trust company.
“U.S.”: United States of
America.
“U.S. GAAP”: U.S.
generally accepted accounting principles.
“U.S. Treasury
Department”: United States Department of the Treasury.
“UBTI”: Unrelated Business
Taxable Income.
“USDC”: U.S. Dollar
Coin.
“WHO”: World Health
Organization.
“You”: The current and
prospective owner or holder of Shares.
INVESCO
GALAXY SOLANA ETF
COMMON
SHARES
December
[ ], 2025
Until
[ ], 2025 (25 calendar days after the date of the initial
Prospectus) all dealers that effect transactions in these securities, whether or
not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a Prospectus.
This is in addition to the dealers’ obligation to deliver a Prospectus when
acting as underwriters and with respect to their unsold allotments or
subscriptions.