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The price of Solana (SOL) has collapsed from its all-time high near $295 in early 2025 to roughly $80 today, a decline of about 70%. Despite the sharp correction, institutional accumulation has remained strong, with major funds continuing to build exposure through spot Solana ETFs.
That divergence is becoming one of the more telling stories in crypto markets right now and new 13F data is putting hard numbers to it for the first time.
The top 30 institutional investors accumulated $540M worth of Solana spot ETFs during Q4 2025, representing roughly 4.3M SOL. These aren’t retail punters chasing a meme. Electric Capital Partners leads with approximately $138M in holdings, Goldman Sachs follows with $107 million, and Elequin Capital holds roughly $88M. Morgan Stanley, Citadel Advisors, and VanEck Associates are also among disclosed holders.
Who were the buyers of those Solana ETFs? The top of the list is a who's who of market makers and crypto investment firms. https://t.co/NHu9ul4nt1 pic.twitter.com/aFI0CLubB1
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) March 9, 2026
About 49% of assets in US spot Solana ETFs were identifiable through 13F filings as of December 31 – a disclosure rate Bloomberg Intelligence analysts called striking for products so young. For context, it took Bitcoin ETFs two to three quarters after launch to reach comparable transparency levels.
The timing makes this more interesting, not less. Since US spot Solana ETFs launched in July 2025, SOL has lost roughly 57% of its value. As of early March 2026, the token trades near $82. Yet the money kept coming.
Cumulative inflows into Solana ETFs have reached approximately $1.45 billion since launch, with $173 million flowing in during 2026 alone even as the token continued falling.
Critically, the standard explanation doesn’t hold. The 30-day weighted annualized Solana basis return has fallen to effectively zero, and briefly went negative in early 2026, ruling out basis trading as the driver. Firms aren’t buying spot SOL ETFs to harvest a carry spread. They’re buying because they want the underlying exposure. In a 57% drawdown, that implies genuine long-term conviction.
The contrast with XRP is instructive. XRP ETFs show only about 16% of assets tied to 13F filers, with the remainder likely held by retail investors. Solana, by comparison, is drawing early-stage institutional capital – investment advisers account for roughly $270 million in exposure, hedge funds for about $186 million.
Who are these buyers/holders? Well we only know a small portion of them because the vast majority don't file 13Fs. But here are the holders as of 12/31/2025 pic.twitter.com/ymIyy1mobx
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) March 10, 2026
Bloomberg Intelligence describes the Solana holder base as ‘top-heavy and skewed toward crypto-focused investment firms,’ noting that broader institutional participation is still building.
For XRP, the retail-heavy base cuts both ways. It drove explosive early adoption – XRP ETFs amassed more than $1.4 billion in the first six weeks after debut and have largely retained that level despite XRP falling 26% – but retail flows are typically more directional, sentiment-driven, and prone to reversal. The contrast in holder composition may ultimately say less about which asset is better, and more about who is making the bet and why.
The accumulation story has a fundamental backdrop. State Street has plans to launch tokenized funds on Solana in early 2026, and the network’s Real World Asset TVL has crossed $1 billion, reflecting growing adoption of tokenized securities and lending instruments.
A pending upgrade called Alpenglow aims to slash block finality to around 150 milliseconds, which would significantly improve performance for trading systems and institutional applications demanding speed. In September 2025, over 98% of voting validators approved the “SIMD-0326” proposal to implement Alpenglow, which replaces the current proof-of-history (PoH) and Tower BFT mechanisms. However, full mainnet activation is still pending as of March 11, 2026.
So the question isn’t whether institutions believe in Solana. The 13F filings already answered that. The real question is whether the network can deliver before their patience runs out.
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