3x Bitcoin products are back in the trending topics. I’d first check a product’s identity, then look at the word “approved.” One point that can be confusing: Volatility Shares already has BITX and ETHU, but this rule approval did not automatically turn them into new 3x products.
The official date of this news was October 2, not today. The SEC’s Release No. 34-106577 approved a Cboe BZX rule proposal covering six 3x commodity products from VS Trust, including Bitcoin and Ether. This means the rule proposal was approved; the order’s title alone cannot confirm that any particular product is listed today or has completed its first trade.
I also checked the issuer’s current product list. As of 5:41 p.m. Beijing time on October 8, BITX was still explicitly described as a 2x Bitcoin ETF, and ETHU as a 2x Ether ETF. Their respective inception dates on the list are June 27, 2023, and June 4, 2024. These are the identities of existing products; their tickers, net assets, or historical performance should not be carried over and presented as track records for new 3x products. The list does not include corresponding 3x BTC or ETH products, and I did not see a corresponding opening notice on the readable announcement pages. This only defines what the current evidence supports; it does not justify claiming that they will never be listed.
There is another point where caution is needed: the product list shows net asset value and net assets, but the readable page does not provide a data cutoff date that would let us verify them. We should neither describe the dollar amounts shown on the webpage as real-time figures nor interpret the assets held by existing 2x products as the amount of buying attracted by new 3x products. Rule approval, product issuance, actual trading, and new creations and redemptions each require their own evidence.
Even if these products are listed later, the meaning of 3x needs to be understood in full. The SEC filing describes three times the daily performance of the benchmark before fees. The benchmark involves near-month and second-near-month futures, so the products obtain exposure primarily through futures and cash. They are therefore not equivalent to holding three times the quantity of spot BTC, and product size alone cannot be used to estimate an equivalent amount of Bitcoin purchases.
Performance over multiple days is also not simply the cumulative gain or loss multiplied by three. Consider an idealized mathematical example: a benchmark rises 10%, from 100 to 110, then falls about 9.09% back to 100. A path that delivers exactly 3x the daily return would instead go from 100 to 130, then to about 94.55, for a cumulative loss of about 5.45%. This does not account for fees, futures basis, or tracking error; it only illustrates why daily compounding changes the result, and is not a forecast of any fund’s actual returns.
So the most useful updates to watch for are separate issuer filings, final tickers, exchange listing notices, and records of actual trades. Once those appear, we can check the target multiple, benchmark, and actual holdings. What we can confirm now is the rule approval, and the current readable product list also confirms that BITX and ETHU remain 2x products. Keeping those distinct is more useful than applying figures from existing products to a claim of a “new 3x listing.” Sources: the SEC’s original order, and Volatility Shares’ product and announcement pages.
The official date of this news was October 2, not today. The SEC’s Release No. 34-106577 approved a Cboe BZX rule proposal covering six 3x commodity products from VS Trust, including Bitcoin and Ether. This means the rule proposal was approved; the order’s title alone cannot confirm that any particular product is listed today or has completed its first trade.
I also checked the issuer’s current product list. As of 5:41 p.m. Beijing time on October 8, BITX was still explicitly described as a 2x Bitcoin ETF, and ETHU as a 2x Ether ETF. Their respective inception dates on the list are June 27, 2023, and June 4, 2024. These are the identities of existing products; their tickers, net assets, or historical performance should not be carried over and presented as track records for new 3x products. The list does not include corresponding 3x BTC or ETH products, and I did not see a corresponding opening notice on the readable announcement pages. This only defines what the current evidence supports; it does not justify claiming that they will never be listed.
There is another point where caution is needed: the product list shows net asset value and net assets, but the readable page does not provide a data cutoff date that would let us verify them. We should neither describe the dollar amounts shown on the webpage as real-time figures nor interpret the assets held by existing 2x products as the amount of buying attracted by new 3x products. Rule approval, product issuance, actual trading, and new creations and redemptions each require their own evidence.
Even if these products are listed later, the meaning of 3x needs to be understood in full. The SEC filing describes three times the daily performance of the benchmark before fees. The benchmark involves near-month and second-near-month futures, so the products obtain exposure primarily through futures and cash. They are therefore not equivalent to holding three times the quantity of spot BTC, and product size alone cannot be used to estimate an equivalent amount of Bitcoin purchases.
Performance over multiple days is also not simply the cumulative gain or loss multiplied by three. Consider an idealized mathematical example: a benchmark rises 10%, from 100 to 110, then falls about 9.09% back to 100. A path that delivers exactly 3x the daily return would instead go from 100 to 130, then to about 94.55, for a cumulative loss of about 5.45%. This does not account for fees, futures basis, or tracking error; it only illustrates why daily compounding changes the result, and is not a forecast of any fund’s actual returns.
So the most useful updates to watch for are separate issuer filings, final tickers, exchange listing notices, and records of actual trades. Once those appear, we can check the target multiple, benchmark, and actual holdings. What we can confirm now is the rule approval, and the current readable product list also confirms that BITX and ETHU remain 2x products. Keeping those distinct is more useful than applying figures from existing products to a claim of a “new 3x listing.” Sources: the SEC’s original order, and Volatility Shares’ product and announcement pages.