Crypto

Digital asset manager Grayscale registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list the Grayscale Solana (SOL) Trust exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The ETF will trade under the ticker symbol “GSOL” and will hold spot SOL as the underlying asset, according to the April 4 S-1 filing.

Grayscale announced plans to convert its existing Grayscale Solana Trust into an ETF in its 19b-4 application filed with the SEC in December 2024.

The filing is among several crypto ETF applications in the United States following a regulatory shift in Washington DC, and Solana is widely expected to be the next digital asset ETF approved by the SEC.

Related: Grayscale files S-3 for Digital Large Cap ETF

Solana price slumps despite Trump’s attention

US President Donald Trump in March announced the inclusion of SOL in the country’s first crypto reserve, alongside Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and Cardano’s native token ADA (ADA).

Digital assets held in the reserve will be acquired through asset forfeiture and may not significantly contribute to demand for SOL or price appreciation.

“A US Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration” and include “made in America” cryptocurrencies, Trump wrote in a March 2 Truth Social post.

Following the announcement, SOL’s price declined to multi-week lows and is down approximately 60% since its all-time high of $295 recorded in January 2025.

SOL’s negative price performance reflects a broader downturn in the crypto markets brought on by fears of a prolonged trade war and the Trump administration’s tariff policies.

Risk-on assets tend to suffer during trade wars as investors flee volatile asset classes for more stable alternatives such as cash and government bonds.

The approval of a Solana ETF could mitigate this price decline by giving traditional financial investors exposure to SOL and funneling capital from the stock market into the altcoin.

Fresh investment capital pouring into SOL may prop up prices during general market downturns, making the altcoin more resilient to price shocks than digital assets lacking traditional investment vehicles.

Magazine: Solana ‘will be a trillion-dollar asset’: Mert Mumtaz, X Hall of Flame

Analysts say Bitcoin (BTC) price could drop to $70,000 within the next ten days as one BTC pricing model suggests that the US-led trade war could upend investors’ risk-asset sentiment.

In his latest X analysis, network economist Timothy Peterson warned that Bitcoin may return to its 2021-era all-time high.

$70,000 is Bitcoin’s “practical bottom”

Bitcoin price expectations continue to deteriorate as the impact of “higher than expected” US trade tariffs hits home.

For Peterson, the outlook now includes an uncomfortable trip down memory lane.

“Bitcoin to $70k in 10 days?” he queried.

An accompanying chart compared Bitcoin bear markets and included Peterson’s Lowest Price Forward (LPF) metric — a historically accurate yardstick for gauging long-term BTC price bottoms.

“While this chart is not a prediction, it does provide data-driven expectations for what Bitcoin could do,” he continued.  

“If it continues to track along the 75th percentile bear market range, then 70k would be the practical bottom.”

Peterson noted that the theory ties in with current LPF data, which last month said that BTC/USD was 95% certain to preserve the 2021 highs as support. 

Prior to that, the metric successfully delivered a $10,000 price floor in mid-2020, with Bitcoin never again dropping below it after September that year.

Continuing, Peterson revealed probabilities for April which showed BTC price expectations in a state of flux.

“Bitcoin went from 75% chance of having a positive month to a 75% chance of having a negative month in just 2 days,” he summarized alongside another proprietary chart.

Related: Bitcoin sales at $109K all-time high ‘significantly below’ cycle tops — Glassnode

Bitcoin’s current price action is “often what a bottom looks like”

The bearish outlook of Peterson’s model is far from the only bearish warning coming to light this week.

As noted by onchain analytics firm Glassnode, many traders are attempting to shield themselves from further crypto market turmoil.

“Puts are trading at a premium to calls, signaling a spike in demand for downside protection. This skew is most pronounced in short-term maturities – a level of fear not seen since $BTC was in the $20Ks in mid-’23,” it revealed in an X thread on April 4.

Glassnode nonetheless acknowledged that while under pressure, current price performance does not constitute a post-tariff capitulation of the sort seen in stocks.

“Despite this, $BTC hasn’t broken down like equities did on recent tariff headlines. That disconnect – rising panic without a price collapse – makes the current options market setup especially notable,” it continued.

“Skew like this usually appears when positioning is one-sided and fear runs high. TLDR: panic is elevated, but price is holding. That’s often what a bottom looks like.”

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Opinion by: Matt Mudano, CEO of Arch Labs 

Ethereum is struggling, and decentralized finance (DeFi) is suffering as a result. Layer-2 (L2) solutions have fractured liquidity, making capital inefficient. In search of greener pastures, the community has turned to Solana — only to find a memecoin-driven ecosystem fueled by pump-and-dump schemes, attracting liquidity extractors, and turning the chain into a playground for speculation and fraud.

DeFi needs a reset that returns to first principles and aligns with Satoshi’s original vision of a decentralized financial system. The only network capable of sustaining the next evolution of DeFi isn’t Ethereum or Solana. It’s Bitcoin.

DeFi is struggling on Ethereum 

Ethereum was once the undisputed home of DeFi, but today, it’s clear that the ecosystem is struggling. The network’s roadmap constantly changes, with no clear path toward long-term sustainability.

L2 solutions were supposed to scale Ethereum. Instead, they’ve fractured DeFi into isolated liquidity silos. While L2s have lowered transaction fees, they now compete for liquidity rather than contributing to a unified financial system. The result? A fragmented landscape that makes capital inefficient and DeFi protocols harder to scale.

Ethereum’s proposed solution — chain abstraction — sounds promising in theory but fails in practice. The fundamental issue is a structural misalignment of incentives, and as a result, Ethereum is gradually losing its competitive edge in DeFi.

It’s time to ask: Can DeFi’s future lie in a fragmented Ethereum?

Solana isn’t the answer

With Ethereum losing its competitive edge, many developers and users have turned to Solana. The blockchain has seen an 83% increase in developer activity year-over-year, and its decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have outperformed Ethereum’s for five consecutive months. 

There’s a fundamental problem: Solana’s DeFi growth isn’t built on sustainable financial applications — a memecoin frenzy fuels it.

The recent surge in activity isn’t driven by innovation in decentralized finance but by speculative trades. Following the TRUMP memecoin craze, the total extracted value from Solana’s memecoins ranged between $3.6 billion and $6.6 billion. This isn’t DeFi growth — it’s a liquidity extraction engine where short-term speculators cash in and move on.

Solana has real strengths. Its speed and low transaction costs make it ideal for high-frequency trading, and its ecosystem has made meaningful strides in decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs), AI and decentralized science, or DeSci. But the dominance of memecoin speculation has turned the chain into a playground for fraud and pump-and-dump schemes. That’s not the foundation DeFi needs.

Solana isn’t the answer if the goal is to build a lasting financial system.

Bitcoin DeFi is thriving

It’s time to return to first principles and build DeFi on the original blockchain: Bitcoin — the most trusted, decentralized network backed by the soundest money in the digital economy.

This is not just theoretical. Bitcoin DeFi is already experiencing explosive growth. Consider the numbers: Total value locked (TVL) in Bitcoin DeFi surged from $300 million in early 2024 to $5.4 billion as of Feb. 28, 2025 — a staggering 1,700% increase. The Bitcoin staking sector is dominating, with protocols like Babylon ($4.68 billion TVL), Lombard ($1.59 billion) and SolvBTC ($715 million) leading the charge. This demonstrates the growing demand for Bitcoin to become a productive asset rather than a passive store of value.

Recent: Bitcoin DeFi takes center stage

Bitcoin-native DeFi isn’t simply copying Ethereum’s playbook — it’s pioneering new financial models. Advancements in the space have introduced dual staking, allowing users to stake Bitcoin (BTC) alongside native tokens to enhance security and earn yields. Meanwhile, novel approaches to tokenizing Bitcoin’s hashrate turn mining power into collateral for lending, borrowing and staking, further expanding Bitcoin’s financial utility.

In addition, Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens have driven record-high transaction activity, with inscriptions reaching 66.7 million and generating $420 million in fees — highlighting the growing demand for tokenized assets on Bitcoin.

It is clear that Bitcoin is no longer just digital gold — it’s becoming the foundation for the next phase of decentralized finance.

The future of DeFi is on Bitcoin

The future of DeFi lies with Bitcoin, where incentives align with long-term value creation. Unlike Ethereum’s fragmented model and Solana’s speculative economy, Bitcoin-based DeFi is built on institutional-grade liquidity and sustainable growth.

As the largest and most liquid crypto asset, Bitcoin boasts a $1.7 trillion market cap and $94 billion in exchange-traded fund (ETF) holdings. Even a fraction of this liquidity migrating into DeFi would be a game-changer. Bitcoin holds over $1 trillion in untapped liquidity and continues to attract strong interest from institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds, with governments already exploring it as a potential reserve asset.

Several projects are already building on Bitcoin, building a sustainable ecosystem where users can hold the most trusted digital asset while making it productive through DeFi mechanisms. 

Ethereum had its moment. Solana had its hype. It’s Bitcoin’s turn to actualize Satoshi’s original vision of a decentralized financial system.

Opinion by: Matt Mudano, CEO of Arch Labs.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.