November 12, 2025
Solana ETP options went live and a bank announced crypto trading on its platform.
Welcome to the Meridian Update. The government shutdown remains not over, but the House is expected to move on reopening the government today. But Crypto Twitter is on to more interesting things already. Let’s dive in.
People want exposure to on-chain assets in off-chain ways (part n)
Why wouldn’t SoFi, a financial technology company and bank founded in 2011, have crypto trading on its platform? From SoFi’s CEO:
“We were not allowed to do that as a bank. It was not permissible.”
But something has changed. It is 2025. People want to invest in on-chain assets. And the government is, uhh, magically more supportive of people investing in on-chain assets. And the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) issued, in March, Interpretive Letter 1183 to rescind Interpretive Letter 1179, which said national banks had to obtain a “supervisory non-objection” from the OCC prior to holding on-chain assets for customers. So of course:
“This morning, we’re launching, as the first and only national bank, the opportunity to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.”“We’ll expand well beyond three [on-chain assets]. It will be a pretty broad assortment…we’ll try to give SoFi members as much selection as they’d like.”
This wasn’t exactly expected. But the SoFi CEO says that 60% of the bank’s members, when surveyed, said they want to buy crypto, specifically through a bank like SoFi. Crypto Twitter loved to see it.
The Meridian Update has been talking a lot about how people want to invest in on-chain assets. We’ve also been talking about how more people are building ways for people to invest in on-chain assets. It is 2025, after all. Just a week ago it was Schwab. A few weeks ago it was Fidelity. Why shouldn’t it be SoFi, too.
We will note that the OCC’s November 2021 Interpretive Letter 1179 did not, exactly, say it was not “permissible” for SoFi to have crypto trading on its platform. Nor did the OCC’s March 2025 Interpretive Letter 1183 say that it “is permissible” for SoFI to have crypto trading on its platform. But who’s reading these things anyway.
This not a copy paste error: People want exposure to on-chain assets in off-chain ways (part n)
Speaking of which, exchange-traded products (ETPs) are another topic that keeps catching Crypto Twitter’s attention. As a refresher, ETPs like the Bitwise and Grayscale Solana ETPs allow people to buy exposure to SOL, the native token of the Solana network, without going on the Solana network to buy it. Specifically, they allow people to buy exposure to SOL on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
We haven’t talked in too much depth about asset tokenization over the past couple weeks. But a joke we frequently make is to ask when someone will tokenize one of these Solana ETPs. The joke is that, well, why wouldn’t you just buy SOL on the Solana network? Why would you buy a tokenization of a ETP-ization of something you could have just…bought?
Who knows. Anyway, we’re not here to report that someone did that. Instead, we’re here to report that they did something else with the Solana ETPs.
“Options on $GSOL are now live.”
“Today, $BSOL options are available for trading on @NYSE.”
Of course! Of course. Why shouldn’t you be able to trade options on off-chain versions of SOL, the native token of the Solana network.
That’s a wrap
Solana ETP options went live and a bank announced crypto trading on its platform. We’ll see you tomorrow morning.
Think we missed something today? Send us a note: email@meridianupdate.com.