Bitcoin (BTC) 3x ETF Proposal Filed With SEC by Cboe BZX

Bitcoin News

Cboe BZX submitted a rule-change petition to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 10, seeking to list the first triple-leveraged exchange-traded products tied to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether alongside gold, silver, crude oil and natural gas. The filing, identified as SR-CboeBZX-2026-065, was opened for public comment by the SEC on Aug. 14, placing Bitcoin at the center of a broader attempt to bring 3x exposure into the U.S. exchange-traded market. Volatility Shares would sponsor the six funds under VS Trust, with each product targeting three times the daily return of its underlying asset through CME or COMEX futures backed by cash and cash equivalents. The legal route is the pivotal point. Rule 18f-4, adopted in 2020, generally limits registered funds to 200% leveraged exposure, so the proposed products are not structured as 1940 Act investment companies. Instead, they would operate as commodity pools supervised by the CFTC and the National Futures Association, while using a 1933 Act S-1 registration. That shift in legal form does not mean the SEC has softened its stance on 3x funds; it means the sponsor is seeking a different regulatory lane. The exchange still requires individual approval because Cboe's ordinary listing standards exclude leveraged products. The issuer's own track record illustrates the risk: its 2x Bitcoin strategy fund, BITX, has fallen 55.86% this year, while Bitcoin has declined 26.77%, and its net assets dropped from $2.25 billion on March 24 to $1.03 billion by May 31. Over one year, BITX declined 77.58% compared with a 43.85% loss in Bitcoin, showing how daily rebalancing can magnify drawdowns when markets move through a bear market. The fund also carried Treasury and repurchase-agreement financing equal to roughly 279% of net assets, according to the filing's risk illustration. No listing date is set. The comment period will now test whether that structure satisfies U.S. exchange-listing requirements.

The proposed products are engineered for short-term tactical positioning rather than buy-and-hold allocation, because each fund resets its leverage daily. The Cboe filing describes a structure that would primarily hold CME or COMEX futures, with cash and cash equivalents serving as collateral, in order to deliver 3x the daily performance of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether, gold, silver, crude oil and natural gas, with Ether adding an altcoin dimension. That daily reset creates compounding effects: in volatile conditions, gains and losses are recalculated on a changing base, making results over longer periods difficult to predict and often worse than a simple multiple of the underlying return. The exchange argues that the commodity-pool format adds another layer of federal oversight beyond the supervision applied to physical commodity-based exchange-traded products. Because leveraged products do not meet Cboe's generic listing standards, the application requires special SEC approval under the 19b-4 process, and the related S-1 registration statement must become effective before any trading can begin. The regulator must act within 45 days after Federal Register publication, with a possible extension to 90 days. The filing also follows a European precedent: LeverageShares introduced 3x and inverse 3x Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded products on SIX Swiss Exchange in Nov. 2025. The U.S. market already offers Volatility Shares' 2x Bitcoin and Ether strategies, so the new application would extend the leverage spectrum rather than introduce an entirely unfamiliar product category. The filing positions these funds as tools for experienced investors who can monitor exposure intraday, not as passive vehicles for multi-month holdings. In a sharp reversal, a 3x fund can lose value even if the underlying asset ends a longer period higher, because each day's exposure is recalibrated. That is the core tradeoff. For traders who once chased an all-time high in leveraged vehicles, the proposal raises access, liquidity and risk questions at once.

COINOTAG's analysis reads the two developments as one test: whether U.S. rules will allow triple-leverage crypto exposure through a commodity-pool wrapper while daily-reset decay remains visible in existing 2x funds. The exchange's official filing identifies proposed 3x pairs on Bitcoin, Ether, gold, silver, crude oil and natural gas, but provides no trading-open timestamp, deposit schedule or withdrawal schedule because no listing date has been approved. Until the S-1 declaration and 19b-4 clearance are both complete, the product family remains a regulatory proposal, not a tradable market. The key threshold is whether the SEC accepts the structural distinction between registered funds and commodity pools without treating 3x crypto as a special investor-protection exception.