Generically listed commodity trusts may now hold 15 percent of net assets in things that fail the listing test, and the rule that lets them adds a definition of digital commodity
Fifteen percent.
That is the share of a generically listed commodity trust that may now consist of assets failing the eligibility criteria the standards otherwise impose, under an amendment to Cboe BZX Rule 14.11(e)(4) that the Securities and Exchange Commission approved on 29 July. BZX had filed it six days earlier. The document filed for public inspection on Friday is both the notice soliciting comment on the proposal and the order approving it on an accelerated basis, which the Commission justified on the ground that the proposal conforms the Exchange's rules to changes it had already considered and approved.
It was already law at two other exchanges. The order cites approval of the substantially similar Nasdaq filing on 27 July and of the NYSE Arca filing on 28 July.
The three changes
New Rule 14.11(e)(4)(D)(iii) creates the buffer. Up to 15 percent of net asset value, in the aggregate, may consist of digital commodities that fail the commodity eligibility test or securities that fail the securities test. Derivatives count toward that limit at gross notional value.
New Rule 14.11(e)(4)(C)(v) supplies a definition. A digital commodity is a commodity that is a digital asset and is intrinsically linked to and derives its value from the programmatic operation of a functional crypto system, as well as supply and demand dynamics, rather than from the expectation of profits from the essential managerial efforts of others. The document states the wording is informed by joint Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission interpretive guidance effective 23 March 2026, and that the Exchange will file again to conform it if legislation defines the term.
The third change deletes the requirement that these trusts track something. Until now the standards required Commodity-Based Trust Shares to be designed to reflect the performance of one or more reference assets or an index, which the document says means they had to be passively managed. Active strategies are now permitted, with a firewall on non-public portfolio information and a trading halt provision drawn from the rules for actively managed exchange traded funds.
The Exchange's case for it
BZX argued demand, and the figures in its statement of purpose are its own rather than the Commission's. It told the Commission that around 49 percent of ETFs launched globally in 2024 were active, that active launches in the United States outnumbered index launches by nearly four to one, that more than a third of American ETF inflows over the past two years came from active strategies, and that roughly 83 percent of new ETFs by the end of 2025 were actively managed.
What still needs a filing
Anything outside the standards. The order says a Commodity-Based Trust Share that does not meet Rule 14.11(e)(4) as modified still requires a rule filing under Section 19(b), and non-fungible assets and collectibles are excluded from the buffer by the definition itself.
