SEC Listing Nod Puts 3x Bitcoin Funds Beside Oil

The SEC on Oct. 2 cleared Cboe BZX to list six 3x daily funds from Volatility Shares, including bitcoin and ether. The products hold futures, not coins, and they still cannot trade until a registration statement goes effective.

Bitcoin and ether sit in the same order as gold, silver, crude oil, and natural gas. The headline is a crypto first. The filing is a commodity shop getting a triple-daily futures line.

The Listing Order Puts Bitcoin Next to Oil

Cboe BZX filed the change on Aug. 10 under File No. SR-CboeBZX-2026-065. The Commission published notice as Release No. 34-106137 on Aug. 14, carried it in the Federal Register on Aug. 19 at 91 FR 53686, and issued the Oct. 2 listing approval order as Release No. 34-106577. It received no comments.

Each series of VS Trust, sponsored by Volatility Shares LLC, seeks daily results, before fees and expenses, equal to three times the daily performance of its reference commodity. That performance is measured by a benchmark of first- and second-month futures, not by spot coins or bars in a vault. Wilmington Trust, National Association, is the sole trustee. U.S. Bank National Association is custodian.

The names say ETF. The order is blunt that they are Commodity-Based Trust Shares, which makes them exchange-traded products, not 1940 Act funds. Shares are meant to trade on Cboe BZX like any other listed product once the separate securities-law step is done.

THE SIX SERIES IN THE ORDER

Eric Balchunas, a Bloomberg ETF analyst, called the package a big win for Volatility Shares and grouped bitcoin and ether with gold, silver, oil, and gas under the 1933 Act. That grouping is the story the ticker symbols try to hide.

First- and Second-Month CME Contracts

The bitcoin and ether series will not hold BTC or ETH. They will hold the futures that make up each fund’s benchmark, plus cash and cash equivalents posted as margin. If those front contracts become hard to use, because of price limits, position limits, or a futures commission merchant pulling risk, the order lets a fund reach for later-dated futures, other listed products tied to the same commodity, or listed options on those instruments.

A 1% up day in the futures benchmark is built to show up as about a 3% gain before fees. A 1% down day is built to show up as about a 3% loss. That promise runs from one net-asset-value print to the next. It does not run across a week, a month, or a cycle.

BZX Rule 14.11(e)(4) already lets plain commodity trusts list under a generic standard. Rule 14.11(e)(4)(F) keeps a specified multiple, and an inverse multiple, off that generic path. Cboe had to file a full 19(b) change because these six series want 3x. The Commission said the rest of the commodity-trust rule still fits, and that similar leveraged products already trade on U.S. venues, including Volatility Shares’ own 2x bitcoin and 2x ether funds.

A Commodity Trust Avoids the Fund Leverage Cap

The wrapper is why 3x got through after staff spent a year pushing 1940 Act filers back toward 2x. These series register the offer of shares under the Securities Act of 1933. They are not investment companies under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Shareholders do not get the 1940 Act’s extra limits on borrowing and portfolio risk.

WHERE THE 2X LINE WAS DRAWN

• The letters: In December 2025 the SEC sent nearly identical notes to nine ETF providers, including Direxion, ProShares, GraniteShares, and Tidal, and paused review of new highly leveraged funds.
• The rule: Staff pointed to Rule 18f-4, which requires a fund’s value-at-risk to stay below 200% of an appropriate unleveraged reference portfolio.
• The ask: Issuers were told to revise strategies to stay at 2x or withdraw the filings; some 3x bitcoin and ether plans from Direxion were in that pile.
• The quote: “We write to express concern regarding the registration of exchange-traded funds that seek to provide more than 200% (2x) leveraged exposure to underlying indices or securities,” the letters said.

Roxanna Islam, head of sector and industry research at TMX VettaFi, said all six of these filings are crypto- and commodity-based, so Volatility Shares could use this pathway. A lot of other 3x, 4x, and 5x products are single-stock funds, she said, and those would not have qualified. The listing nod does not rewrite 18f-4. It routes around it.

BITX Holds $1.33 Billion After Three Years

Volatility Shares already runs the product these 3x series copy, at half the multiple. The 2x Bitcoin ETF, ticker BITX, listed on June 27, 2023, and does not invest directly in bitcoin. It uses CME bitcoin futures and collateral, the same basic stack the new trust describes.

THE LIVE 2X BOOK

• Bitcoin sleeve: The issuer lists $1.33 billion of BITX net assets as of Oct. 2, 2026, with a $19.91 NAV, a $19.92 close, and 66,840,000 shares outstanding.
• Ether sleeve: The same date’s product list shows ETHU’s $1.28 billion in net assets and a $29.83 NAV for the 2x Ether ETF, which launched June 4, 2024.
• Fees on BITX: Management fees are 1.85%. The total expense ratio is 2.75%.
• Combined: BITX and ETHU together hold about $2.61 billion, a cash register that already pays the firm to rebalance bitcoin and ether futures every day.

Quarter-end figures as of Sept. 30, 2026, show how loud that daily machine is in both directions. BITX’s NAV rose 90.28% in the quarter and is down 61.93% over one year, with a 35.18% annualized three-year figure and 75.22% since inception. Holdings dated Oct. 5 show CME October bitcoin futures at 143.82% of net assets, November futures at 56.17%, and cash and other at 100%.

That is already a 2x book with nine-figure turnover in the roll. A 3x trust on the same futures will have to buy more on up days and sell more on down days to keep the multiple glued to the latest NAV. The people who collect that bid-ask and that management fee are not the holders staring at a three-day chart.

A Flat Two-Day Move Still Loses Money

The S-1 is not coy about who this is for. The August 17 registration statement says each fund seeks results for a single day only, measured from one NAV calculation to the next, and that returns over longer stretches will usually differ in amount, and possibly even direction, from three times the reference asset for the same period.

AN INVESTOR IN A FUND COULD POTENTIALLY LOSE THE FULL PRINCIPAL VALUE OF HIS/HER INVESTMENT WITHIN A SINGLE DAY OR OVERNIGHT.

VS Trust, Preliminary Prospectus dated August 17, 2026

The same filing tells readers the trusts are not mutual funds or any other 1940 Act investment company, and that shareholders do not have those protections. It also warns that investors will get a Schedule K-1. That is partnership tax paper, not a simple 1099, and it arrives well after year-end.

The two-day round trip is the cleanest way to see the gap. Start the benchmark at 100. It rises 10% to 110, then falls 9.09% back to 100. The asset is flat. A 2x daily product goes to 120, then to 98.18, a 1.82% loss. A 3x daily product goes to 130, then to 94.55, a 5.45% loss, before fees. Both funds did their job each day. The second day’s leveraged drop hit a larger base.

THE TWO-DAY FLAT PATH

That gap is why the SEC’s own leveraged-fund warning tells buy-and-hold investors these products are built for a day. In one bulletin example, an index gained 2% over four months while a fund seeking twice that index’s daily return fell 6%, and a fund seeking twice the inverse fell 25%. Bitcoin’s daily range is wider than a broad equity index. The 3x multiple does not add 50% more decay than 2x. Compounding is nonlinear, so the extra turn costs more than the extra digit in the name.

Balchunas has a shorter version: leveraged ETFs are for trading, not investing. Once BITH and ETHK list, a brokerage ticket will make a three-times daily futures bet as easy to buy as a stock. That ease is the product. A holder who treats it as a louder bitcoin fund will learn the reset on the statement.

Why the Shares Still Cannot Trade

The Oct. 2 order lets the exchange list the shares. It does not make the shares effective for public offer. VS Trust still needs the Commission to declare the Form S-1 effective under the 1933 Act before brokers can sell the new series. The order sets no date for that step, and the prospectus on file is still marked subject to completion.

THE PATH TO A TAPE

1. August 10, 2026: Cboe BZX files SR-CboeBZX-2026-065 to list the six VS Trust series under BZX Rule 14.11(e)(4).
2. August 14, 2026: The Commission issues notice as Release No. 34-106137.
3. August 17, 2026: VS Trust files the Form S-1 for GLDU, SLVK, BITH, ETHK, OILY, and NATX, with an initial authorized participant buying two creation units at $15.00 a share.
4. August 19, 2026: The notice runs in the Federal Register at 91 FR 53686. No comments arrive.
5. October 2, 2026: Release No. 34-106577 approves the listing rule and still names no launch date.

Posts through Oct. 6 still treat the S-1 as open. There is no issuer launch window to report. Seed shares at $15.00 are a filing detail, not a market. Until effectiveness lands, the 3x bitcoin story is a rule change and a prospectus, not a product a retail account can buy.

Older 3x Oil Products Already Left the Tape

The Commission used existing leveraged commodity products as a reason the new series fit investor-protection rules. It pointed to live 2x funds such as ProShares Ultra Gold, Ultra Silver, Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil, and Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas, plus BITX and ETHU. It also noted MicroSectors’ Gold 3x Leveraged ETN, ticker SHNY, which already targets three times gold’s daily move. The first U.S. 3x bitcoin fund is a crypto first. It is not the first 3x commodity note on a U.S. tape.

3X NAMES THE ORDER SAYS LEFT THE MARKET

• Silver: VelocityShares 3x Long Silver ETN, ticker USLV, is cited as previously listed and no longer trading.
• Crude: ProShares UltraPro 3x Crude Oil ETF, ticker OILU, is cited the same way.
• Gas: VelocityShares 3x Long Natural Gas ETN, ticker UGAZ, is cited as a 3x daily natural-gas note that is gone.

Those exits are in the approval, not in a critic’s thread. Natural gas and crude already taught the same daily-reset lesson the bitcoin series will sell as novelty. The order still finds the listing consistent with Section 6(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, including surveillance-sharing with the designated contract markets that list the futures.

BITH and ETHK will be easy to confuse with spot bitcoin and ether funds that actually hold the coins. They are closer to a listed 3x oil note that happens to roll CME crypto futures. The listing nod is real. The coins are not in the basket, the 2x cap still binds 1940 Act funds, and the shares do not trade until the S-1 is effective.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of an SEC listing order and related filings. It is informational only and is not investment, trading, tax, or legal advice. It does not recommend buying, selling, or holding BITX, ETHU, BITH, ETHK, or any other leveraged or inverse product, and it does not assess whether any reader should use futures-based funds. Readers should consult a licensed financial adviser, tax professional, and, where needed, a securities lawyer before acting, and should read the full prospectus and S-1, including risk factors, for any fund they consider. Figures, tickers, and status details reflect the cited issuer pages and Commission documents as of the dates those sources give, and assets, performance, and registration status can change.