On 3 September 2026 the US Securities and Exchange Commission granted accelerated approval to Nasdaq Texas, LLC’s proposed rule change SR-NasdaqTX-2026-039 — Release No. 34-106268. The filing amends Rule 5711(d) on Commodity-Based Trust Shares. Three moves: a buffer of up to 15% of net asset value in certain holdings that do not meet the existing generic listing tests, provided they are digital commodities or certain securities; a definition of “digital commodity”; and permission for actively managed strategies. At least 85% of NAV must still sit in assets that already qualify, plus cash and cash equivalents.
Headlines will say the SEC “classified” Solana and XRP as commodities. Read the worked example. Bitcoin, ether, Solana, and XRP appear as assets that presently qualify as eligible commodities under the surveillance-sharing tests already in the rule — futures on an Intermarket Surveillance Group market for at least six months, and an ETF with substantial economic exposure. That is a listing-standard illustration on one Texas venue. It is not a Howey rewrite, not a new bitcoin, and not a court deciding a particular offering.
What happened
Nasdaq Texas filed on 20 August. The Commission noticed the filing and approved it the same day as the order, on an accelerated basis, because the substance matches changes already approved for The Nasdaq Stock Market on 27 July 2026 and, in the same family, for NYSE Arca and Cboe. Faster crypto ETP listings are a process change, not a hall pass is the September 2025 parent story: generic listing standards for Commodity-Based Trust Shares, so qualifying products skip a one-off 19(b) fight. This order extends a 15% flexibility sleeve and an active-management permission to Nasdaq Texas’s copy of that rulebook.
The new definition says a digital commodity is a digital asset intrinsically linked to, and deriving value from, the programmatic operation of a functional crypto system and from supply and demand, rather than from expectations of profits from the essential managerial efforts of others. Nasdaq Texas says that language is informed by joint SEC–CFTC interpretive guidance effective 23 March 2026, and that it would file again if Congress writes a statutory definition. Sponsors must watch the 85% test daily and notify the exchange on a breach.
The order’s examples are plumbing. A trust that is 95% in already-eligible BTC, ETH, SOL, and XRP and 5% in other digital commodities that fail the old tests would fit the buffer. A trust that is 71% bitcoin and 29% OTC options on a bitcoin ETF would not, because the options exceed 15%. Gold and gold futures that already qualify can still be 100% of NAV. None of those paragraphs is a shopping list.
Why it matters
If you buy a Commodity-Based Trust Share in a brokerage account, you own shares in a trust. A custodian, an authorised participant, and a market-maker keep the product running. Fees, tracking, and whether you may redeem for coins (usually you may not) are the product. See a spot ETF is a wrapper, not a new bitcoin, and how buying crypto actually works. A 15% sleeve lets a manager hold some stuff that would otherwise force a slower filing. It does not put coins in your wallet.
“The SEC said XRP is a commodity” is the caption. The instrument is an exchange rule about what a listed trust may hold on Nasdaq Texas. Other venues, other countries, and the Howey analysis of a particular token sale are different machines. Regulation is a process memo, not permission. Self-custody did not get a statute this afternoon.
What happens next
Issuers will try products that use the buffer and active management. Some will miss the 85% line. Marketing will flatten “digital commodity” into a blessing. Read the prospectus and the listing rule, not the ticker’s fan account. Comments on the notice run 21 days after Federal Register publication — process, again, not a candle.
Not a recommendation of any exchange-traded product, bitcoin, ether, Solana, or XRP. Not tax or legal advice.
