VanEck Solana ETF (VSOL) Declares First Cash Distribution of $964,960 From Staking Income

VanEck Solana ETF (Nasdaq: VSOL) has declared its first cash distribution: $964,960 in aggregate, funded by income from staking the SOL the fund holds. The trust disclosed the payment in a Form 8-K with a report date of October 5, 2026, signed on October 6. Shareholders of record on October 6 are due the cash on October 7, and the filing says the shares were expected to begin trading ex-dividend on October 6.

How VSOL funds its staking distribution

VanEck Solana ETF intends to make cash distributions at least quarterly, according to the 8-K. Each one consists of net staking income: what the trust earns from staking after it pays its staking services provider and any fee a SOL custodian charges for facilitating staking. Staking is how Solana SOL$116.02-2.9% rewards holders who delegate SOL to the validators that run the network, and those rewards accrue in SOL, so a cash payout needs a conversion step. The filing spells that out: "the Trust may sell staking rewards and/or a portion of its SOL, which may affect the Trust's exposure to SOL and the market price and/or net asset value of the Shares."

Tax rules set the quarterly cadence. VanEck Solana ETF intends to distribute at least quarterly in order to rely on the safe harbor conditions of IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-31, which applies to grantor trusts that stake digital assets, and the 8-K notes that the IRS may modify, clarify or withdraw that guidance.

VanEck Digital Assets, the sponsor, expects to declare distributions each quarter, and the filing gives no assurance of any particular amount or frequency. Each payment depends on the staking rewards the trust receives, on legal and regulatory requirements, and on the trust's operational and liquidity needs, the 8-K says.

What the $964,960 payout leaves undisclosed

The 8-K gives the aggregate amount and nothing finer. It states no per-share figure, no share count for the record date, no period of staking rewards that the payment covers, and no indication of whether SOL was sold to fund it.

The latest financial statements are three months older than the declaration. VSOL's 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 reported net assets of $14,315,887, 1,425,000 shares outstanding and 190,186 SOL held, of which 139,388 SOL (about 73%) was staked. Staking income, net of the provider's fee, came to $170,183 for the quarter and $469,636 for the six months to June 30. The declared distribution is roughly twice that six-month figure, and neither filing reconciles the two numbers.

That 10-Q also sets the staking provider's fee at 0.28% of the trust's staked assets a year. VanEck selected SOL Strategies to stake the fund's SOL through its Orangefin validator, The Block reported on November 17, 2025.

Solana staking yield in late September and early October 2026

On the Solana network itself, the average validator returned an annualised 4.95% to 5.02% to its stakers after commission in each of the ten epochs from 1041 to 1050, a stretch of about two weeks, according to the data behind our staking dashboard as of October 5, 2026. In epoch 1050 the figure was 5.01%, of which 4.76 points came from inflation rewards and 0.25 points from MEV tips. Those are network averages for SOL staked directly with validators. A fund's own rate depends on how much of its SOL is staked and on its fees.

How Grayscale GSOL and Bitwise BSOL treat staking rewards

Grayscale set out a similar quarterly policy for its Solana fund in July 2026. A prospectus supplement filed on July 17, 2026 for Grayscale Solana Staking ETF (GSOL) said an amendment would "require the Trust to reduce the Staking Consideration held by the Trust to cash no less often than quarterly," with distributions net of trust expenses, as we covered when Grayscale set out GSOL's quarterly payouts.

Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) leaves the decision with its sponsor. The fund's 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2026 says "the Trust may distribute Staking Rewards (in solana or cash from the sale of solana) to shareholders at the Sponsor's discretion," and its statements of changes in net assets for the first half show no distributions to shareholders. We looked at those accounts in our report on BSOL's first-half flows.

VanEck says VSOL's distribution schedule, including expected distribution and record dates, is published on the fund's product page at vaneck.com.