Cboe files for US 3x bitcoin, ether ETFs

Cboe BZX has filed with the SEC to list what would be the first 3x leveraged bitcoin and ether ETFs in the US. The filing follows LeverageShares' launch of the world's first 3x bitcoin and ether products in Europe earlier this year, giving the SEC a live template to weigh instead of a theoretical one.

What the filing asks for

The products would target 300% of the daily return of bitcoin and ether, reset each trading day, the same structure used in existing 2x crypto ETFs already trading in the US. Volatility Shares' 2x bitcoin ETF (BITX) has pulled in more than $3 billion in assets since its 2023 launch, and 2x ether products followed the same demand curve once ether ETFs cleared. The SEC's own generic listing standards, adopted in 2024, cut the review runway for commodity-linked trust filings from 240 days to a much shorter clock, which is why issuers keep testing higher multiples now rather than waiting. A 3x product carries daily reset math that can badly diverge from the underlying asset's price over any stretch longer than a day, a mechanic every leveraged ETF prospectus is required to disclose but that most retail buyers don't fully price in.

The read: this is a demand test, not a caution flag

The SEC has already normalized 2x crypto exposure. Once the daily-reset structure clears one multiple, the regulatory objection to a bigger multiple stops being about crypto at all and becomes a generic leveraged-product question the agency has answered before, for oil, for semiconductors, for regional banks. Cboe's bet is that the same investors who bought BITX at 2x will roll into 3x for the same reason retail always chases higher multiples: the daily percentage move looks better on a chart, right up until a multi-day chop erases the edge entirely. The real signal here isn't approval odds, which look decent given precedent. It's that issuers now treat crypto leverage products the same way they treat any other commodity wrapper, a sign the asset class has moved from "special case requiring years of litigation" to "next SKU in a shelf."

One thing to watch

Watch whether the SEC applies the same generic listing standard timeline it used for 2x products, or slows this one down specifically because of the 3x multiple. A fast approval, inside the standard window, confirms the agency now treats leverage multiple as a product-design detail rather than a crypto-specific risk. A stalled or rejected filing would say the opposite: that 3x crossed a line the SEC still treats as crypto-only, even after clearing 2x twice.

Source: The Block