Solana Treasuries & ETFs Gobble Up Nearly 5% of SOL Supply in 2025

Institutional demand for Solana just hit a new gear. A massive chunk of the network's native token—nearly 5% of the total circulating supply—has been vacuumed up this year by a wave of corporate treasuries and newly launched exchange-traded funds.

The Big Money Move

Forget retail FOMO. The real story is playing out on balance sheets. Major funds and publicly traded companies are now treating high-performance blockchain tokens as strategic reserves, moving beyond the old Bitcoin-only playbook. Solana's speed and lower costs make it a prime candidate for this shift.

ETF Effect in Full Swing

The approval of spot Solana ETFs earlier this year opened the floodgates. These funds don't just track the price; they have to buy and hold the actual asset. That creates a constant, institutional-grade buy pressure that's structurally different from speculative trading—Wall Street's version of 'set it and forget it,' albeit with more expensive management fees, of course.

Supply Shock on the Horizon?

Taking 5% of a major asset's circulating supply off the open market isn't a trivial event. It directly reduces sell-side liquidity. When large, long-term holders lock away tokens, the available float shrinks. That can amplify price moves on any significant buying activity—a basic economic principle the crypto markets are finally learning, decades after traditional finance mastered the game.

This isn't just a vote of confidence in Solana's tech; it's a fundamental recalibration of how digital assets are valued. The market is no longer just driven by traders and degens. The quiet, steady accumulation by funds and ETFs is building a new, less volatile foundation. Whether that's a boringly bullish signal or just the financialization of everything—your call.

Solana’s strategic entities built up over 20M SOL in their reserves, valued at $2.6B. Of those reserves, close to 9.5M SOL is staked with validators, increasing their influence. 

Solana treasury companies slowed down purchases

The Solana treasury companies seem to have completed their purchasing rounds for the year. In December, no net additions were made to the treasuries, despite the lower SOL price. 

The Solana treasury companies also lost on the stock market, following peak HYPE in Q3. Forward Industries, the leading treasury company, is on track to finish the year with around 40% net gains. However, FWDI is down from a $39 peak in September. 

The company’s SOL treasury is valued at $871M, while the stock market cap is down to $608.8M, showing decreased enthusiasm for proxy buying. 

Solana Company, with a treasury of 2.3M SOL, failed to see its stock bounce. The former biotech company is trading at $2.78, down from a March peak of $772.50. 

DeFi Dev Corp is down from a yearly high of $53.88, trading at $5.76 toward the end of 2025. The company holds the third-largest treasury of 2.19M SOL. 

Toward the end of the year, the treasury companies did not have new inflows and had to switch to relying on the internal Solana ecosystem and its fees. Staking with validators may provide some windfalls for those companies, provided the price of SOL remains relatively stable. 

Solana ETFs extend net buying streak

The relative novelty of Solana ETF extended the buying streak for funds. ETFs are not as reliable as treasuries for long term holding, as the trend may reverse at any time. 

The available Solana ETFs had mostly net inflows in the past three weeks. In total, the funds contain 7.86M SOL, breaking above the $1B tier in assets under management. The ETF may restart fees beyond that threshold. 

SOL remains relatively subdued, trading at $127.91. SOL’s mindshare is above 10% on social media, rising by 29.25% lately. Despite the price slowdown, Solana remains a key platform for decentralized activity and fast apps. The chain was among the biggest fee producers based on real economic activity for 2025. 

Despite the expansion of on-chain activity, SOL has been bound in a range for years, so far not fulfilling the expectations for four-digit valuations or even new price records. SOL is still pressured by the need for apps to realize profits, as some of the leading fee producers still sell on the open market.

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