SEC Clears 3x Leveraged Bitcoin and Ethereum Funds for Trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission on October 2 approved a rule change that allows Cboe's BZX Exchange to list six funds from Volatility Shares designed to deliver three times the daily price moves of futures on Bitcoin, Ethereum, gold, silver, crude oil and natural gas. The funds obtain their leveraged exposure primarily through futures contracts and will trade on the exchange like ordinary shares once each fund's registration statement is declared effective; the SEC's order does not specify a launch date. These leveraged products target triple the one-day return of their reference futures: a 2% intraday rise in Bitcoin futures, for example, would aim to produce a 6% gain for the corresponding fund, while a 2% drop in the same day would aim for a 6% loss. The funds reset daily, so their performance over multi-day stretches can diverge substantially from three times the cumulative move of the underlying futures, a behavior the SEC and FINRA have previously warned investors about. Cboe's fast-track listing framework for commodity funds normally excludes products that seek a multiple of an asset's return, which is why the exchange sought SEC approval for these specific 3x listings. The SEC's order notes that, beyond the leverage target, the funds must satisfy all other Cboe listing requirements. The agency emphasized reliance on existing protections such as brokers' Regulation Best Interest obligations and FINRA's heightened sales and margin rules for leveraged products. The decision follows a period of push and pull over higher-leverage products. Volatility Shares introduced the first leveraged crypto ETF in the U.S. in 2023 with a 2x Bitcoin futures product and later expanded its 2x lineup to include Cardano, Stellar, Chainlink, Solana and XRP in April 2026. Regulators previously told issuers in December 2025 that products above 2x exposure were under scrutiny and in March 2026 asked firms to avoid 5x products; some earlier 3x commodity funds from other issuers have since exited the market while at least one 3x gold product still trades. The SEC's order does not set a trading start date; each fund can only begin trading after its registration statement takes effect.