Recently, there has been a change in Crypto ETFs that may be more worth paying attention to than “who will apply for an ETF next.”
On September 3, the SEC fast-tracked approval of Nasdaq Texas’s amendment to Rule 5711(d).
The core number is just one: 15%. The new rules allow eligible Commodity-Based Trust Shares to allocate up to 15% of NAV to digital commodities or certain securities that do not meet the original general listing standards.
In other words, in the past, if a crypto asset wanted to enter an ETF, it often had to satisfy an entire set of listing requirements on its own.
Now this door has been opened a crack.
Suppose a crypto portfolio product has 85% of its positions made up of core assets that meet the standards, and the remaining up to 15% can, in theory, be allocated to some digital commodities that do not yet meet the original general listing standards. What does this mean? Some altcoins may in the future not have to wait for “their own spot ETF to be approved” at all, and could instead enter traditional brokerage accounts first through a small allocation in a portfolio fund. And this change is not just about 15%.
The Nasdaq rules previously approved by the SEC also allow qualified Commodity-Based Trusts to adopt an active management strategy.
Putting these two changes together, the possibilities become completely different:
In the past, Crypto ETFs were more like:
BTC ETF, ETH ETF, SOL ETF...
One product bets on one major asset. In the future, it may increasingly look like a traditional fund: a fund manager manages a basket of Crypto assets, with the core position allocated to assets that meet the standards, and then uses up to 15% of the space to allocate other digital commodities.
In fact, this is not entirely without precedent.
When approving the rules, the SEC explicitly mentioned that it had already approved some products to allocate up to 15% of their portfolios to digital assets that had not previously been approved by the SEC as the primary investment target of an ETP.
So this is not “the SEC suddenly allowing all altcoins into ETFs.” The real change is:
The regulator is slowly transforming the past one-by-one approved Crypto ETFs into a set of fund rules that can be run at scale.
This may be more important than “which altcoin will get the next ETF.”
Because once the rules mature, what Wall Street may need is no longer to create an ETF for every single coin, but to launch directly:
Crypto Top 10, actively managed Crypto funds, Crypto portfolio products for different sectors...
By then, the truly important question may shift from:
“When will this coin have an ETF?” becomes: “Does this coin qualify for that 15% position?”
Of course, that 15% is not a free pass for altcoins. Assets included there are still subject to regulatory constraints, and the so-called “digital commodity” itself has a clear legal definition; NFTs, collectibles, and the like do not fall under this opening.
But the direction is already very clear:
Crypto ETFs are moving from “one coin, one ETF” toward “portfolio-based, actively managed” products.
If this path continues to expand, the next round of ETF-driven institutional money may not belong only to assets like BTC and ETH that already have standalone products.