Grayscale Cuts GSOL Sponsor Fee to 0.19% and Staking Fee to 7% in SEC Filing

Grayscale Investments filed an SEC 8-K on June 25, 2026, cutting two fees on its Grayscale Solana Staking ETF (SOL ticker: GSOL) simultaneously. The annual sponsor fee drops from 0.35% to 0.19% of Trust assets, and the staking fee (the portion of gross staking rewards retained by the fund's service providers) falls from 23% to 7%. Both changes took effect the same day they were filed.

The 8-K, signed by Edward McGee, Chief Financial Officer of Grayscale Investments Sponsors, LLC, reflects Amendment No. 3 to the Trust's Declaration of Trust and Trust Agreement. A prospectus supplement under SEC Rule 424(b)(3) was filed in parallel to update investor disclosures.

Staking Fee Cut Is the Sharper Move

The sponsor fee reduction gets GSOL to price parity with Franklin Templeton's SOEZ (0.19%), previously the lowest-cost US spot Solana product, while Bitwise's BSOL charges 0.20%, 21Shares' TSOL 0.21%, Fidelity's FSOL 0.25%, and VanEck's VSOL 0.30%, according to a current ETF fee comparison.

The staking fee cut is the more consequential number. When GSOL's initial fee waiver period expired in February 2026, the aggregate staking cost (covering the Sponsor's fee, the Custodian's fee, and the staking provider's share) reverted to 23% of gross staking consideration. At GSOL's Q1 staking reward income of $2.2 million on $105.1 million in net assets, a 23% haircut on gross rewards was a meaningful drag on the yield investors actually received. Dropping that aggregate to 7% leaves substantially more of the staking income in shareholders' hands.

The GBTC Playbook

Grayscale entered the US spot Solana ETF market last year at 0.35%, the highest sponsor fee among the major staking products at launch. That premium pricing mirrors how the firm managed its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC): enter early with legacy pricing, then cut as competitive pressure builds. GBTC lost market share to lower-cost competitors following the January 2024 ETF conversion before Grayscale reduced fees.

With GSOL, the competitive reset is coming faster. Morgan Stanley filed amended S-1 registration statements in June 2026 for a Solana Trust (MSOL) at a 0.14% sponsor fee, five basis points below the new GSOL rate, adding downward pressure before that product reaches the market.

Institutional Solana ETF Holdings: 30 Firms, $540M Disclosed

Roughly 30 institutions have disclosed Solana ETF exposure totaling approximately $540 million collectively, per Compass coverage of Q1 13F filings. Dartmouth's endowment was the first Ivy League institution to disclose a Solana ETF position, holding $3.3 million in Bitwise's BSOL. For endowments and pension funds adding staking ETF exposure at scale, the difference between a 23% and 7% staking haircut affects net yield materially.

GSOL's own AUM fell 34% during Q1 2026, driven by SOL price depreciation rather than redemptions. The trust held 1,272,221 SOL tokens at quarter-end with roughly matched creation and redemption volume of approximately $17.5 million each, per the Q1 10-Q. The fee cut addresses what was the clearest pricing gap between GSOL and its peers.

What Changes for Shareholders

From June 25, investors in GSOL pay 0.19% annually on assets and surrender 7% of gross staking rewards to fund service providers rather than 23%. The trust stakes up to 100% of its SOL holdings. Any staking consideration generated above the 7% aggregate cost flows to shareholders as net staking income.

The 8-K does not indicate a waiver period. Unlike the November 2025 fee reduction, which was time-limited to three months or $1 billion AUM, the current cuts appear permanent until further amendment.