Trillion-dollar asset management firm Franklin Templeton’s recent praise for the Solana network on X (formerly Twitter) has sparked new hope for a potential Solana (SOL) exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the distant future.

In a Jan. 16 social media post, the asset manager’s official X account said it was impressed by numerous developments in the Solana ecosystem under Anatoly Yakovenko’s leadership.

“We see Anatoly’s vision of a single atomic state machine as a powerful use case of decentralized blockchains, lowering information asymmetry,” Franklin said on Jan. 17.

The firm listed the growth in decentralized finance (DeFi), infrastructure networks, nonfungible token innovations, and even memecoins among Solana’s most notable developments in the last quarter alone.

The firm even made a joke about changing its current laser-eye emblazoned profile picture on X to one where Benjamin Franklin would sport a knitted hat, in reference to the new Dogwifhat (WIF) memecoin on Solana.

While the asset manager also referenced the Ethereum network, Bitcoin Ordinals, BTC-based layer 2s and “other L1s,” most of the praise from Franklin Templeton’s digital assets team appeared directed at Solana.

The Solana-skewed praise caused many crypto community members on X to express hope Franklin Templeton may look to issue a Solana ETF product in the future.

“Ok guys. Solana ETF is next,” wrote pseudonymous X user nxxn.

Meanwhile, a post from Bitcoin (BTC) advocate “Lex” hinted that a Solana-based ETF may only be a matter of time.

Since launching spot Bitcoin ETFs on Jan. 11, many in the industry are hopeful that other crypto assets could become featured in a United States spot crypto ETF, including Ether (ETH) and XRP (XRP). 

Several spot Ether ETFs are now awaiting approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, many of which will receive a final decision from the securities regulator around May, according to analysts.

Related: Blockchain adoption ‘accelerating very quickly’ in big finance — Franklin Templeton exec

While Franklin Templeton hasn’t filed for a spot Ether ETF itself, it has shared positive sentiment toward the Ethereum ecosystem.

“We are excited about ETH and its ecosystem. Despite the midlife crisis it’s recently experienced, we see a bright future with many strong tailwinds to push the Ethereum ecosystem forward,” Franklin said in a follow-up post on X.

Protodank Sharding — a mechanism allowing rollups to add cheaper data to blocks — via EIP-4844 and restaking — the process of recycling staked Ether to earn fees and rewards — were two of the four developments Franklin said it was excited about on Ethereum.

Franklin said it is continuing to monitor other layer-1 blockchains. The firm didn’t name which networks but said some have “massive potential.”

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