The US Securities and Exchange Commission has published an October 19 notice setting out Cboe EDGX rules for options on trusts holding several crypto assets. The framework follows standards already approved for Cboe Options, rather than creating an entirely new US category.
EDGX filed the change on October 6. The SEC waived the usual 30-day wait and made it operative upon filing. The distinction matters: October 19 is the notice date, not the first day on which the rule could operate.
Each underlying asset must qualify
The earlier April 8 Cboe approval explains the benchmark being extended. Every crypto asset in a qualifying trust must have an average daily global market value of at least $700 million over the preceding 12 months. The test applies separately to each asset, rather than allowing a large holding to compensate for another asset that falls below the threshold.
The calculation uses issued supply multiplied by the asset price, excluding units not yet issued. A second condition requires each asset to underlie a derivatives contract traded on a market covered by a comprehensive surveillance-sharing arrangement. That arrangement can be direct or arise through common membership of the Intermarket Surveillance Group.
Approval is not a one-time check. The April order provides for monthly assessment of the market-value condition and possible suspension of new opening transactions if eligibility fails. Existing requirements for the underlying shares and options continue to apply. The SEC linked the standards to liquidity, orderly creation and redemption of trust shares, and investigating suspected market manipulation. The approval also keeps applicable position limits, exercise limits and margin requirements in place for these options.
Trust shares and options are separate layers
The underlying products have their own regulatory history. In September 2025, the SEC approved generic listing standards for commodity-based trust shares on three national securities exchanges. These cover exchange-traded products holding spot commodities, including digital assets, and allow qualifying shares to be listed without a separate proposed rule change for every product.
The 2025 order also required written liquidity-risk procedures when a trust had less than 85% of its assets readily available to meet redemptions. Those procedures had to be reviewed at least annually and address liquidity under normal and stressed conditions, funding sources and restricted assets. Assets that could not be sold or transferred within one business day counted as unavailable. The approved generic route also excluded trusts targeting leveraged or inverse returns over a predetermined period.
ETF transparency remains part of the framework
The EDGX package also accommodates options on exchange-traded funds defined by Rule 6c-11 and removes individual crypto-product references where generic criteria cover them.
Under the current text of Rule 6c-11, an ETF is a registered open-end management company whose shares trade on an exchange at market prices. It issues and redeems blocks of shares with authorised participants in exchange for baskets of assets and, where necessary, cash balancing amounts. This is a defined fund structure, not a loose label for every exchange-traded investment.
Its disclosure obligations operate each business day. Before regular trading begins, the fund must publish the portfolio holdings used for its next net-asset-value calculation. The required information includes descriptions, quantities and portfolio weights. Its website must also show the preceding day’s net asset value, market price and premium or discount, alongside historical premium-and-discount information and the median bid-ask spread.
The rule also requires written procedures governing baskets, with additional controls for custom baskets that depart from the portfolio’s usual composition. Records of authorised-participant agreements and exchanged baskets must be retained for at least five years. These provisions address how the fund operates and discloses information, separately from the options exchange’s admission tests.
For related coverage, Dalimss News has examined the CFTC’s leveraged-crypto consultation and the SEC’s crypto-custody proposal. Those reports concern platform rules and asset safekeeping respectively, rather than the exchange-listing requirements described here.
The SEC can temporarily suspend the EDGX change within 60 days of filing. Its notice invites public comments under file SR-CboeEDGX-2026-067. The closing date depends on Federal Register publication; the SEC version leaves that calendar date unfilled.
