SEC Clears Cboe to List Volatility Shares’ 3x Bitcoin and Ether Funds

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a Cboe BZX Exchange rule change on Oct. 2 that clears the exchange to list six triple-leveraged products from Volatility Shares, among them a 3x Bitcoin ETF and a 3x Ether ETF.

The remaining four aim for three times the daily move in gold, silver, crude oil and natural gas. All six belong to the VS Trust, which Volatility Shares sponsors and manages.

"Looks like SEC just approved a 3x Bitcoin ETP as well as 3x Ether, Gold, Silver, Oil, Nat Gas under 33 Act. Wow. Big win for VolatilityShares," Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote on X on Friday evening.

Why Cboe Needed a Rule Change

The funds carry "ETF" in their names, but the SEC order classifies them as commodity-based trust shares. Their shares are registered under the Securities Act of 1933, and they fall outside the Investment Company Act of 1940 that governs conventional ETFs.

Cboe already has generic listing standards that let commodity trusts list without a separate filing. Those standards shut out any product that targets a multiple or an inverse of a benchmark, so Cboe had to submit a standalone rule change, which it filed on Aug. 10. The SEC received no public comments, and its Division of Trading and Markets approved the proposal under delegated authority.