June 28 (Reuters) - Digital assets investment management

firm 21Shares filed Friday for permission from U.S. regulators

to launch an exchange-traded fund tied to the spot price of

crypto token Solana.

It was the second such filing in as many days, following a

similar move Thursday by VanEck. The Securities & Exchange

Commission approved spot bitcoin ETFs offered by both firms,

among others, in January after a long battle. Both VanEck and

21Shares are among the asset managers awaiting SEC approval to

launch spot ETFs tied to the price of ethereum, the

second-largest cryptocurrency.

The CBOE, the exchange on which both asset managers plan to

list Solana ETFs if approved, must still request regulatory

approval to change its rules and allow these new products to

trade. People involved in the Solana discussions, who declined

to be identified because of the confidentiality of the process,

said that filing could come within days or weeks. A spokeswoman

for CBOE declined to comment.

A third asset manager, Canada's 3iQ, filed earlier in June

for permission from Ontario regulators to list a similar

Solana-based product on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Solana is

the fifth-largest cryptocurrency measured by market

capitalization, according to CoinGecko.

The three filings have combined to drive the price of Solana

9.4% higher in the last seven days, even as the prices of

bitcoin and ether dropped 4.6% and 2.8% respectively, according

to CoinGecko.

So far, however, no futures contracts on Solana trade on the

CME, in contrast to the pattern with both bitcoin and

ether. The SEC approved futures-based ETFs tied to both tokens

before considering the spot products.

The existence of futures contracts, however, "should not be

the sole criterion for ETF eligibility," said Andrew Jacobson,

head of legal at 21Shares.