Cboe BZX Exchange has asked the SEC to let it list triple-leveraged bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds. It would be the first US bid for 3x crypto ETFs, according to a regulatory notice.
The proposed rule change would authorize a six-fund suite from sponsor Volatility Shares: a 3x Bitcoin ETF, a 3x Ether ETF, and gold, silver, crude oil, and natural gas variants. Each is engineered to deliver three times the daily move of its underlying asset. The filing, published by the SEC on Friday, marks the highest-leverage crypto ETF products yet to reach US review.
That part is new. Existing US crypto-leverage ETFs cap at 2x. Volatility Shares already runs those 2x bitcoin and ether funds. A 3x wrapper would double that daily exposure.
Each fund would hold futures contracts on CME or COMEX, with cash and cash equivalents as collateral. The funds are structured as commodity pools under CFTC oversight rather than as investment companies under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Cboe framed that split as a feature. The structure brings “an additional layer of federal regulatory oversight — beyond what a physical commodity-based exchange-traded product would be subject to,” the exchange said.
In practice, that means the SEC is weighing whether to let a CFTC-regulated vehicle trade on its equity markets and whether three-times daily leverage belongs there at all.
Because the funds seek leveraged returns, they fall outside Cboe’s generic listing standards and require specific SEC sign-off. Cboe will also file a related Form S-1 registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933. The filing text indicates the sponsor will adjust futures holdings daily to keep each fund on its three-times target. “The Sponsor will increase and decrease the number of Benchmark Futures Contracts that each Fund holds in order to accommodate purchases and redemptions of Shares and to account for changes in the value of the Benchmark so that each Fund can meet its daily investment objective,” the filing said.
The products are aimed at short-term, tactical trading by sophisticated investors rather than buy-and-hold exposure. Daily rebalancing on a 3x structure means compounding can erode returns in choppy markets even when the underlying asset trends flat. The filing’s risk language centers on that point.
The filing trails a European launch. LeverageShares debuted the world’s first 3x and inverse-3x bitcoin and ether ETFs in Europe last year, The Block reported, during a broader retail crypto selloff. A US approval would close that gap and test whether American regulators are willing to extend the leverage ceiling they set at 2x.
The SEC has not signaled a timeline. Cboe, Volatility Shares, and the SEC had not responded to requests for comment at press time, according to the report.
