SEC opens the door to bitcoin ETFs with yield and a floor
On 29 July the SEC approved a Cboe BZX rule change letting funds hold up to 15 percent of their value in non-eligible assets. Covered call and buffer funds on bitcoin can now list under the generic standards, without fund-by-fund approval.
A rule change rarely sounds like news, but this one changes which kind of bitcoin fund will sit on a US exchange. On 29 July 2026 the SEC granted accelerated approval to a Cboe BZX proposal: SR-CboeBZX-2026-061, published as Release 34-106011. It amends Rule 14.11(e)(4) on Commodity-Based Trust Shares. Cboe filed the proposal on 23 July.
The fifteen percent
It comes down to one number. Funds may now hold up to 15 percent of net asset value (NAV) in non-eligible assets — including digital commodities and OTC options.
That sounds like accounting, but it is precisely the room you need to write options or build in a downside floor. Without it, such structures simply did not fit within the listing rules.
What this makes possible
Two product types come within reach:
- Covered call: the fund holds bitcoin and sells call options on it. That generates periodic premium income, in exchange for capped upside.
- Buffer (also called principal protected): an options structure absorbs part of the downside — again at the cost of part of the upside.
The most important part is procedural: these funds can list under the generic listing standards, without the SEC approving each fund separately. That saves months per product.
The approval also establishes that issuers are not liable when concentration thresholds are exceeded through bitcoin's own price appreciation — a practical point that would otherwise cause trouble in every rally.
What it means for you
European investors generally cannot buy US spot ETFs directly, and this rule changes nothing there. What does count is the direction of travel: the offering is shifting from "owning bitcoin" to "bitcoin with a chosen yield or risk profile". Such structures typically return in European UCITS form with a lag.
Caveat — yield here is not free money
A covered call trades upside for premium. In a strongly rising market such a fund will lag plain bitcoin; it is not an income stream layered on top of the same price gain. A buffer protects up to a limit, not beyond it.
And do not lose the biggest nuance: this is an approved rule, not a product. Not a single fund is currently listed under this standard, and how many issuers actually use it remains to be seen.
Sources: Federal Register (SEC Release 34-106011, SR-CboeBZX-2026-061), Cboe BZX rule filings. Last checked: 2 August 2026.