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Howdy!

The Solana wallet that I moved a few dollars around on for Lightspeed purposes got airdropped $50 worth of PENGU tokens today! Free money is exhilarating, let me tell you. 

Today, we have a Bitwise Solana staking ETP, Solana’s REV levels, and a Pudgy prank:

Bitwise launches solana staking ETP in Europe

Crypto asset manager Bitwise has launched a solana staking ETP in Europe with the ticker BSOL, Lightspeed has learned exclusively. Solana staking firm Marinade will be Bitwise’s staking provider.

The move comes less than a month after Bitwise signaled its plans to list a solana ETF in the US by registering a statutory trust in Delaware. Bitwise’s decision to build out its SOL staking infrastructure could also give it the capacity to offer staking rewards for its US spot SOL ETF. Current US applications all have staking rewards stripped out due to securities law concerns, but some are speculating that might change under a Paul Atkins-led SEC.

Another US-based crypto asset manager made a similar move in recent months when VanEck began a SOL staking partnership with Kiln.

Bitwise first offered a European solana ETP when it acquired London-based ETC Group and its ESOL product, which currently holds $24 million in assets under management, down from $27 million a month ago. Investors’ problem with ESOL is likely its lack of staking rewards, which have been quite lucrative for solana investors in recent months. BSOL has staking rewards baked in.

Solana staking rewards come from SOL issuance that the network pays out to validators for running the blockchain’s software. Validators pass these rewards onto stakers to compete for staked SOL. For stakers, the reward rate is around 8% annually, according to Solana Compass. This is more than double the average staking APY on Ethereum.

To be clear, solana ETP issuers don’t pay this full amount. 21Shares’ solana staking ETP, the fifth-largest crypto ETP in Europe, pays 5.49%. Bitwise will pay 6.48%, according to a document shared with Blockworks, and it is using Marinade as its staking provider, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said. 21Shares also charges a 2.5% management fee, while BSOL will cost investors 0.85% per year.

Again, none of the US solana ETFs would include staking rewards as currently constructed. But that order of things may not last. Bitwise’s staking provider Marinade hired New York-based banking executive Hadley Stern to be its chief commercial officer in September, perhaps to prepare for a rush of US institutions looking to access solana staking yield.

It’s impossible to know exactly how the future might play out, but with VanEck and now Bitwise adding solana staking ETPs to their portfolios, something like this is plausible: Atkins comes to power, SOL staking rewards are deemed not to be securities, spot ETF issuers re-file with staking rewards attached, and firms use their European staking ETP infrastructure to offer the same products in the US.

But I wouldn’t bank on that happening very soon. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said today he expects SOL ETFs to be approved in the US only after BTC and ETH combo, Litecoin, and HBAR products all have gotten the go-ahead.

— Jack Kubinec

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Renaud Partners is the premier go-to-market consulting firm for early-stage Solana teams.

We’ve been deeply involved in the community since 2021, supporting some of the best known projects in the ecosystem. We help teams with their go-to-market, brand positioning, social and PR, and fundraising strategy, and we also work across other ecosystems including Monad, Base and TON.

If you're a team looking to expedite your marketing success, let’s talk: [email protected] or @rockin_renaud on telegram.

We missed it yesterday, but here’s your weekly Solana REV check:

As a reminder, REV essentially measures income for a blockchain and is a proxy for blockspace demand. 

The figures are down slightly from the unprecedented highs immediately following the US presidential election (maybe blame pump.fun for turning off livestreams), but there also hasn’t been much of a meaningful slip from the weekly REV level that was initially set when AI agents burst onto the scene in mid-October.

— Jack Kubinec

Brought to you by:

Renaud Partners is the premier go-to-market consulting firm for early-stage Solana teams.

We’ve been deeply involved in the community since 2021, supporting some of the best known projects in the ecosystem. We help teams with their go-to-market, brand positioning, social and PR, and fundraising strategy, and we also work across other ecosystems including Monad, Base and TON.

If you're a team looking to expedite your marketing success, let’s talk: [email protected] or @rockin_renaud on telegram.

Pudgy Penguins, the Ethereum-born NFT sensation, has officially launched its native token, PENGU, on the Solana blockchain. In the lead-up to the drop, speculators have been running the numbers, eager to calculate just how much free money they might squeeze out of the launch.

Enter @shahh, a crypto enthusiast who devised a scheme to capitalize on the drop using some next-level degenerate math. According to a post on X, he claimed to have purchased 10,000 Pudgy Penguin toys from Amazon at approximately $20 each — a total investment just short of $200,000. Anticipating an airdrop value of $100 per toy, Shahh said he intended to claim the rewards and then return all 10,000 toys for a full refund. If successful, he would (very speculatively) net a $1 million profit with zero cost.

While it’s unclear whether or not the poster was trolling, many were thoroughly entertained. “Albert Einstein WHO??” questioned @Patr9ck0028. User @hitrippie shouted into the void: “SOMEONE BAN THIS GUY (so i can do this),” while @Blazedbarbell reminisced: “My client did this exact thing with @garyvee book drop.”

Not everyone was buying it, though. @WanamakerEstate poked holes in the plan: “I don’t get it. You can’t even determine how much an airdrop will be. What if the airdrop is $5? Now you’re down 150k.” Similarly unimpressed, @lucasboiiiiii offered a cold splash of reality: “inb4 they allow 1 per wallet, have fun broski.”

For those expecting their own slice of the airdrop pie, PENGU is also supposedly meant to reward “OG” Ethereum and Solana users, even if they don’t own any Pudgy Penguins-related products — though their definition of ‘OG’ seems to conveniently exclude most actual OGs. Your humble author has so far checked half a dozen active ETH wallets going back 8 years. My claim so far? A whopping zero. Tough scene. Turns out, I’m not alone. Discord and X are teeming with complaints from frustrated users — many of whom actually do have claims — reporting constant failures and no support to contact.

— Jeffrey Albus

A message from Ian Unsworth, co-founder of Kairos Research: