What will Solana face after Trump becomes president?

Author: Jack Kubinec Source: blockworks Translation: Shan Ouba, Golden Finance

Donald Trump will begin his second term as US President on Monday. After an expensive campaign season, cryptocurrency finally ushered in its president.

After Trump's victory, Bitcoin gained momentum due to his promise to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. This reserve plan will allow the US Treasury to accumulate close to 5% of the total Bitcoin supply. However, industry insiders believe that Trump's inauguration may bring more attention to networks such as Solana, which are characterized by a greater focus on actual use cases rather than as reserve assets.

The price of SOL rose 19% in the week before Trump's inauguration. Just after the New York Post reported that the incoming president was "willing to consider" establishing a second strategic cryptocurrency reserve, the price of SOL soared again by 5%. The reserve may include tokens created by the United States, such as SOL, XRP and USDC.

However, the practicality of this idea is questionable. As Paradigm Vice President Alexander Grieve said, "Such reports should be viewed with skepticism until they come from Trump or his team." Grieve wrote on X (formerly Twitter): "Also ask, why are such details in the media? Who put them there?"

However, other reports this week about Trump's relationship with cryptocurrencies appear more credible. According to Reuters, under President Trump, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may "freeze" cryptocurrency lawsuits that are not related to fraud allegations.

The SEC sued Coinbase and Binance in 2023, accusing the exchanges of acting as unregistered brokers to trade tokens including SOL. According to the SEC's definition, SOL is a security, which means that any U.S. company that exchanges such a token may be violating the law. The SEC has only issued two special purpose broker licenses, but neither of them provides SOL-related services. While the SEC has withdrawn its case against Solana in its lawsuit against Binance, a major barrier to adoption for the network could be cleared if Coinbase’s enforcement action is also frozen.

With Solana’s unregistered securities issues seemingly winding down, some have begun looking ahead to a Solana ETF (exchange-traded fund). If the SOL ETF is approved, it would allow a regulated Solana investment vehicle to trade on public stock exchanges. Polymarket’s forecasts put the probability of a SOL ETF approval at 75% in 2025.However, Sol Strategies CEO Leah Wald said in an interview with Blockworks’ Katherine Ross that she believes the Solana ETF is still unlikely to be approved in the short term.

Solana could also gain a more intangible advantage under President Trump and a friendlier regulatory environment.

When SOL’s regulatory status was uncertain, developers focused primarily on facilitating memecoin trading, which was “effectively a form of protest against the SEC’s lack of clarity on regulation,” said Titus Capilnean, vice president of market strategy at Civic Technologies.

“With Trump in office, the cryptocurrency space is likely to shift from pure speculation to utility-driven growth. Developers can launch more complex applications with more confidence without having to worry about regulatory backlash,” Capilnean said.

Over the past year, many Solana developers in the United States have told me that their products would have a better chance of finding market fit if the regulatory environment was clearer. Now, they finally have the opportunity to prove it.