The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved amendments to Nasdaq Texas Rule 5711(d) that give commodity-based crypto trusts a 15 percent flexibility window, letting them hold up to 15 percent of net assets in digital assets or certain securities that do not independently meet listing standards. The order, numbered 34-106268, also names Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP as examples of assets that presently satisfy the exchange’s commodity-based trust standards.
The change does not amount to a new federal declaration that the four tokens are commodities. It concerns exchange listing standards for Commodity-Based Trust Shares. Still, the explicit mention of XRP alongside Bitcoin and Ether carries weight, since XRP’s status has been contested in US courts ever since the SEC sued Ripple in December 2020. Judge Analisa Torres’ 2023 ruling found programmatic sales of XRP on exchanges were not securities transactions, but the question of commodity status was never formally settled. The SEC’s new order notes that futures on these assets have traded on designated markets long enough to satisfy the surveillance-sharing and manipulation-deterrence requirements the agency has historically demanded before allowing exchange-traded products.
How the 85/15 structure works
Under the approved framework, at least 85 percent of a qualifying trust’s portfolio must remain in assets that meet the generic listing requirements. The remaining 15 percent can hold other digital commodities or securities that fail to qualify on their own. The SEC’s own example describes a $100 million trust holding $95 million across Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP, with $5 million allocated to otherwise non-qualifying digital assets.
Sponsors must notify the exchange immediately if they fall out of compliance, but a temporary breach does not automatically disqualify the product. Cash equivalents and short-term Treasury instruments sit outside the 85 percent calculation without disqualifying a trust. A trust holding 40 percent bitcoin, 30 percent ether, 15 percent solana and 15 percent cash qualifies. One holding 71 percent bitcoin and 29 percent non-qualifying derivatives does not, and would face the old individual review track.
The order also permits actively managed Commodity-Based Trust Shares, which extends the framework beyond passive single-asset trackers. That may matter more for future product design than the asset list itself, since it allows rebalancing and tactical allocation inside a regulated wrapper.
| Trust allocation example | Compliant under 85/15 rule |
|---|---|
| 40% bitcoin, 30% ether, 15% solana, 15% cash | Yes |
| 95% across BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP; 5% other digital assets | Yes |
| 71% bitcoin, 29% non-qualifying derivatives | No, individual review required |
| 30% bitcoin, 30% ether, 20% XRP, 20% pre-launch tokens | No |
What it opens up for fund managers
Before the generic listing standards went live, every crypto ETP required individual SEC review, a process that could stretch to 240 days and produced repeated delays. GraniteShares’ XRP ETF application, for instance, bounced through multiple procedural postponements even after the streamlined framework arrived. The new buffer lets sponsors build diversified products, folding satellite positions into smaller tokens, DeFi exposure or even SAFT agreements and token warrants, without triggering that full review pipeline.
The rule draws one hard line: non-fungible assets and collectibles are excluded from the commodity definition entirely, closing the generic listing route for NFT-linked products.
Market reaction was muted. XRP traded near $1.40, down roughly 4 percent over 24 hours, as rising Treasury yields and renewed Federal Reserve rate-hike expectations pressured risk assets across the board. Bitcoin held near $79,500 and ether near $2,490. Analysts at CryptoRank noted the XRP move looks macro-driven rather than token-specific, pointing out that XRP ETF flows have held up anyway, with roughly $170 million of inflows over an 11-session streak and Goldman Sachs disclosing about $87.4 million in holdings in recent filings.
Why the muted price action matters
The pattern repeats what happened after earlier regulatory wins. Prices did not jump on the approval, but the structural effect compounds: Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP are becoming the default building blocks of regulated crypto products, and each rule change widens what can be built on top. Issuers who prepared diversified trust structures in advance can file under the new framework immediately, while competitors wait for the next comment cycle.
The comment period remains open, and the SEC can still tighten the rule in response to institutional objections. Likely targets include the treatment of derivatives by gross notional value, which critics argue could open a loophole for leveraged products. For now, though, exchanges and asset managers have their answer: multi-asset trusts, active management and modest allocations to emerging tokens are all inside a compliant structure.
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