The week of September 19, 2025 has been a very important week for cryptocurrencies. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has voted to approve proposed rule changes by three national securities exchanges that will allow them to “adopt generic listing standards for exchange-traded products that hold spot commodities, including digital assets.” This is major news for investors who want to be able to perhaps more easily or traditionally own exposure to certain assets that they might otherwise have skipped. It will also help with the national goal of making cryptocurrencies easier to invest in (or get exposure to) in retirement accounts like IRA and 401/K plans.
The long and short of the matter — this clears the way for the “alt-coins” and also other “digital assets” if they are considered to be spot commodities. How this plays out will be interesting to watch but the alt-coin crypto-bros must be smiling and cheering. Some may even be dreaming of what they will be allowed to include inside of an ETF investing strategy.
The three exchanges may now list and trade Commodity-Based Trust Shares that meet the requirements of the approved generic listing standards without first submitting a proposed rule change to the Commission pursuant to Section 19(b) of the Exchange Act.
The Trump Administration as pledged that the U.S. would be the world’s crypto leader. This move helps in the innovation of digital assets, while also streamlining the listing process and reducing barriers to access digital asset products with a “rational, rules-based approach” that both brings products to market AND tries to protect investors at the same time.
The SEC’s same news announcement also included word that the SEC has approved the listing and trading of the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund — which holds spot digital assets based on the CoinDesk 5 Index.
And lastly, the SEC also approved the listing and trading of p.m.-settled options on the Cboe Bitcoin U.S. ETF Index and the Mini-Cboe Bitcoin U.S. ETF Index with third Friday expirations, nonstandard expirations, and quarterly index expirations. More hedging and more options contracts are on the way — and also the ability to speculate.
Here is why all of this matters. The ETFDB website shows that the top 5 Bitcoin and crypto ETFs today have a combined market value of more than $155 billion in assets under management. The next 20 ETFs ranked by assets under management in digital and crypto have roughly a combined $33 billion in combined assets.
