October 29, 2025
Another big ETF announcement, a Western Union announcement, and a Visa announcement caught Crypto Twitter’s attention.
Welcome to the Meridian Update. It was a big day in Solana world. Let’s dive in.
When it rains ETFs, it pours ETFs
We are thankful to report that is not how the saying goes.
BREAKING: @Grayscale Solana Trust ETF approved for listing and registration by the SEC 👀
We wrote yesterday about Bitwise’s Solana ETF project getting SEC approval. It went live today. Volumes were impressive. As we’ve been saying, people want to buy on-chain things off-chain.
We’ve mentioned Grayscale’s Solana ETF product before. It’s now truly live and listed as an ETF trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
We’ll see how volumes play out when it goes live. It’s worth keeping an eye on after the Bitwise Solana ETF became the ETF launch with the most day one volume in 2025. That’s of any type of ETF, not just crypto.
What do Western Union and Visa have in common?
In theory, both are legacy money transmission and payment rails companies that might view an upstart financial system as competition. In practice, both made announcements about on-chain plans that caught Crypto Twitter’s attention.
“Leveraging Solana and Anchorage Digital, Western Union aims to redefine how the world moves money.”
Western Union is launching its own stablecoin on the Solana network. For those who don’t know, Western Union is most famous for being a way to send cash to someone abroad, among its other business lines (we don’t know about its other business lines, but said that for good measure). For those who don’t know, a major existing use case for blockchain networks is sending not-cash-but-still-is-money money to someone abroad. And here Western Union is, using a blockchain network to aid it in its endeavors. People on Crypto Twitter noted how interesting it is to see a big player like Western Union reduce its reliance on SWIFT.
"We are adding support for four stablecoins, running on four unique blockchains, representing two currencies, that we can accept and convert to over 25 traditional fiat currencies," Visa's CEO Ryan McInerney said during a fourth-quarter earnings call on Tuesday.
The Solana network is one of those unique blockchains.
You have to find it interesting that these two companies are making announcements about doing things on-chain. Well, you don’t have to. But we do.
That’s a wrap
Another big ETF announcement, a Western Union announcement, and a Visa announcement caught Crypto Twitter’s attention. We’ll see you tomorrow morning.
Think we missed something today? Email email@meridianupdate.com.