Solana

Solana (SOL) spot ETF inflows strengthened in May 2026 after six straight months of declines, rebounding from $39.93 million in April versus $419 million in November 2025. By May 19, Solana spot ETFs had attracted more than $103 million for the month, ahead of XRP's $97 million over the same period. SOL traded near $86 on May 21, up about 2.15% in 24 hours, as broader weekly fund flows showed large outflows from Bitcoin and Ethereum products.

XRP exchange-traded funds have attracted more cumulative capital than Solana ETFs, despite SOL showing stronger price performance for much of the year. Since launching in November 2025, XRP ETFs have taken in $1.39 billion versus $1.12 billion for Solana ETFs launched in October. The analysis argues the gap is tied more to regulatory and institutional factors than to network upgrades or price action.

Tokenized exchange-traded funds (ETFs) reached a new high in participation on May 20, with unique holders rising 11,803% year over year. Holder count stood near 44,400 at press time versus 373 a year earlier, while the sector's market cap was about $437.6 million and activity centered mainly on Solana, BNB Chain, and Ethereum.

On Tuesday, spot bitcoin ETFs registered $331.05 million in net outflows, dominated by a $325.58 million withdrawal from Blackrock's IBIT. Ether ETFs also stayed negative, shedding $62.30 million for a seventh consecutive losing session. By contrast, solana and XRP ETFs posted net inflows of $3.78 million and $1.48 million, respectively, alongside smaller but steady trading activity.

Zama has acquired TokenOps to add Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) to token vesting, airdrops and cap table workflows for institutional issuers. The companies said the setup uses onchain encryption, including the ERC-7984 confidential token standard, to reduce signaling and front-running risks tied to transparent releases. The FHE-based distribution is already running in production, including deployments for KAIO and Zama's own (ZAMA) confidential vesting on Ethereum.

Galaxy Digital research chief Alex Thorn raised his estimate that the CLARITY Act becomes law in 2026 to 75%, up from a 50/50 view he held in April. The shift followed a 15-9 Senate Banking Committee vote on May 14 and an updated legislative timetable that points to Senate action in June, House work in July, and a possible presidential signature the week of August 3.

Solana’s tokenized real-world assets rose 43% quarter over quarter in Q1 2026 to $2.01B, led by Blackrock’s BUIDL and additional growth from PRIME and ONyc. Over the same quarter, “Chain GDP” application revenue stayed nearly flat at $342.2M even as SOL fell 33% and Solana DeFi TVL slipped 22% to $6.16B. Developers are also preparing the Alpenglow upgrade, which targets 150ms finality in 2026.

A long-time Solana wallet that staked 991,079 SOL in 2021 sold another 30,000 SOL on May 19 for about $2.56 million, lifting total recorded sales since 2025 to 965,274 SOL worth $137.66 million. The wallet still has 381,140 SOL staked, valued at roughly $32.4 million, leaving the market exposed to potential additional supply if those tokens are later unstaked and sold.

Goldman Sachs appears to have eliminated its spot XRP and Solana (SOL) ETF-related holdings during the first quarter of 2026. The same SEC Form 13F indicates the bank kept sizable positions tied to Bitcoin and Ethereum vehicles and added exposure to crypto infrastructure names including Circle, Coinbase, and Galaxy Digital.

Institutional investors withdrew a combined $1.07 billion from Bitcoin and digital-asset investment products in one week, ending a seven-week run of inflows and marking the year's third-largest weekly outflow. Bitcoin led the declines with $982 million leaving, while Ethereum recorded $249 million in outflows, its biggest weekly redemption since January 30th. XRP and Solana bucked the trend, drawing $67.6 million and $55.1 million in inflows, respectively.