Cboe Can Now List Options on Multi-Crypto ETFs: Which Coins Pass the $700 Million Test
Cboe's BZX and EDGX exchanges can now list options on funds holding several crypto assets. Our CoinGecko analysis shows all 15 large coins pass the $700 million test; CME's futures list is the real filter, and GDLC and NCIQ fit it.
Quick take
- Cboe's BZX and EDGX exchanges can now list options on funds that hold several crypto assets.
- Each coin must average $700 million in market value and have a surveilled derivatives market.
- Our data shows the dollar test is easy; CME's futures list is the real filter.
Two Cboe stock exchanges can now list options on funds that hold a basket of cryptocurrencies, after rule changes published in the Federal Register on October 16 and October 22 took effect without waiting for a formal SEC approval.
The filings by Cboe BZX and Cboe EDGX set generic listing standards, so the exchanges no longer need a separate SEC filing for each multi-crypto fund. Until now, US-listed crypto options have mostly been tied to single-asset products such as spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs.
Both exchanges filed the changes as "non-controversial" and asked the SEC to waive the usual 30-day delay "so that the proposed rule change may become operative immediately upon filing," according to the EDGX notice. BZX filed on September 29 and EDGX on October 6; both copy rules the SEC approved for Cboe Options on April 8, 2026.
The bar has two parts. Every crypto asset in the fund must have an average daily market value of at least $700 million over the previous 12 months. It must also underlie a derivatives contract on a market with which the exchange shares surveillance, directly or through the Intermarket Surveillance Group. The exchanges check the first test monthly and the second continuously, and can halt new positions if a fund falls short.
The $700 million test barely filters anything
To see which coins qualify, BullishStation averaged CoinGecko's daily market capitalization for 15 large crypto assets over the year to October 18. All 15 cleared the threshold easily. The smallest, Polkadot, averaged about $2.45 billion, roughly 3.5 times the bar, and never fell below $1.28 billion. Because CoinGecko uses circulating supply while the rule refers to total supply, these figures are, if anything, conservative.
| Asset | 12-month avg. market cap | CME futures? |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin (BTC) | $1,566.1B | Yes |
| Ether (ETH) | $294.8B | Yes |
| XRP | $95.0B | Yes |
| Solana (SOL) | $58.7B | Yes |
| Dogecoin (DOGE) | $16.8B | No |
| Cardano (ADA) | $10.8B | Yes |
| Bitcoin Cash (BCH) | $8.1B | No |
| Chainlink (LINK) | $7.9B | Yes |
| Stellar (XLM) | $6.6B | Yes |
| Litecoin (LTC) | $4.7B | No |
| Avalanche (AVAX) | $4.4B | No |
| Sui (SUI) | $4.4B | No |
| Hedera (HBAR) | $4.3B | No |
| Shiba Inu (SHIB) | $3.8B | No |
| Polkadot (DOT) | $2.45B | No |
Calculated by BullishStation from CoinGecko daily data (Oct. 19, 2025 to Oct. 18, 2026). CME list from CME Group (Jan. 15 and March 2, 2026). "No" means no CME contract; another surveilled market could still qualify an asset.
The real gatekeeper is the derivatives requirement. CME lists futures on seven crypto assets: bitcoin, ether, XRP and solana, plus cardano, chainlink and stellar, which it added on February 9. Dogecoin, litecoin and avalanche pass the dollar test by billions but have no CME contract, so a fund holding them would need another qualifying market.
Those seven coins are exactly what the two best-known US multi-crypto funds hold. The Grayscale CoinDesk Crypto 5 ETF (GDLC) tracks bitcoin, ether, XRP, solana and cardano, and the Hashdex Nasdaq CME Crypto Index ETF (NCIQ) adds chainlink and stellar, according to its SEC filing. Weighted by average market value, a basket of those seven would be about 77% bitcoin and 15% ether, our calculation shows, so options on such funds would behave much like options on a bitcoin-heavy portfolio.
Arriving as investors pull back
The timing is awkward for demand. US spot Ether ETFs have lost about $1.18 billion in October through the 22nd, and Bitcoin ETFs swung to a $635.6 million outflow on October 22 after three days of inflows, according to Farside Investors data in our ETF flows tracker. Options could give some investors a way to keep diversified crypto exposure with a hedge, but no exchange has yet announced a listing date.
The change adds to a busy quarter for crypto-linked derivatives in the US, after five exchanges registered to offer perpetual futures on US stocks in September. For the mechanics, see our guide to perpetual futures, funding and leverage.
What comes next: comments on the BZX filing close on November 6 and on the EDGX filing on November 12. The SEC can temporarily suspend each change within 60 days of filing, until about November 28 for BZX and December 5 for EDGX. Watch for the first options listing on a multi-crypto fund, and for any new CME futures that would widen the list of eligible coins.
Related: Ether ETFs bleed for 10 straight sessions · Thailand's new crypto ETF rules
Sources: Federal Register, 91 FR 65809 (SR-CboeBZX-2026-082) · Federal Register, 91 FR 66752 (SR-CboeEDGX-2026-067) · CME Group · Grayscale GDLC · CoinGecko · Farside Investors
This article is for information only and is not investment advice. Crypto-assets and options are volatile and you can lose all of your capital.
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