SEC Writes Four Crypto Tokens Into Nasdaq Texas Trust Rules

The SEC on September 3, 2026, gave Nasdaq Texas accelerated approval to treat Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP as digital commodities in commodity-trust listings. The order amends Rule 5711(d) for Commodity-Based Trust Shares, adds a 15% sleeve for holdings that miss the tests, and lets those trusts run active strategies.

It is an exchange listing change, copied from Nasdaq, not a new federal commodity statute. The four tokens already sat on a March joint interpretation. What changed is the product rule a sponsor can use on a Texas venue 12 days before a Senate cloture vote.

Nasdaq Texas Gets the Same Crypto Trust Rule

Release No. 34-106268 is the accelerated approval of Rule 5711(d) for Nasdaq Texas, LLC, file SR-NasdaqTX-2026-039. The exchange filed on August 20. The Commission signed the order 14 days later and asked for comments within 21 days of Federal Register publication.

The filing says the changes are materially identical to Rule 5711(d) at The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC. That parent rule is SR-NASDAQ-2026-032, approved July 27 as Release No. 34-105995. Texas is not inventing a crypto standard. It is importing one.

Nasdaq Texas is the former Nasdaq BX, converted to a Texas limited liability company in February 2026 and opened as a dual-listing venue on March 5. A later filing, SR-NasdaqTX-2026-042, is still pending and would align equity rules so the exchange can act as a primary listing venue. Crypto trusts are arriving while that shift is on the table.

THE TWO FILINGS

1. April 14, 2026: Nasdaq files SR-NASDAQ-2026-032 to rewrite generic listing standards for Commodity-Based Trust Shares.
2. June 9, 2026: Nasdaq files Amendment No. 1, adding the digital commodity definition, the 15% buffer, and active-strategy language.
3. July 27, 2026: The Commission approves that parent rule as Release No. 34-105995.
4. August 20, 2026: Nasdaq Texas files the matching change as SR-NasdaqTX-2026-039.
5. September 3, 2026: The Commission grants accelerated approval in Order 34-106268.

The Nasdaq Stock Market’s matching July order is the template. Anyone reading only the Texas headline will miss that the four-token example and the sleeve were already in the parent rulebook.

Funds Can Hold 15% Outside the Tests

Rule 5711(d) still requires that commodity holdings meet at least one surveillance test. New subparagraph (C) then carves out the sleeve. Up to 15% of NAV, in aggregate, may sit in digital commodities that fail the commodity tests, or in securities that fail the security tests. Derivatives inside that sleeve are counted at gross notional value, the same method Nasdaq uses for Managed Fund Shares.

That leaves 85% of the trust in holdings that clear the tests. The sleeve is permission, not a mandate. A sponsor can list a four-token trust, leave the 15% unfilled, and still use the generic standard.

THREE WAYS A TOKEN QUALIFIES

Those tests are about surveillance and an existing listed product, not about the Howey case. A token can be called a digital commodity in a joint interpretation and still miss every row.

Why Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP Qualify

Nasdaq’s June amendment walked through a $95 million four-token trust example. The basket holds Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP, and the filing says all four presently qualify under Rule 5711(d)(iv)(A)(2) and (A)(3). Each underlies a futures contract that has been trading on an ISG market for at least six months, and each already has an ETF that supplies at least 40% economic exposure to that commodity.

Order 34-106268 uses the same four names as digital commodities that meet the current eligibility criteria. The Texas order does not invent a new legal class for XRP or Solana. It records that they already clear the listing tests the generic standard uses.

That is why the headline overstates the legal jump. Spot products on these coins already exist. The new work is packaging them, with other holdings, under one generic commodity-trust rule on a second Nasdaq venue.

Sixteen Commodities and Four Listing Slots

The definition Texas added is drawn from a joint SEC and CFTC interpretation dated March 17, 2026, and effective March 23. That 68-page release sorts crypto assets into five buckets: digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins, and digital securities. Digital commodities, collectibles, and tools are not themselves securities under that reading.

Law-firm summaries of the release list 16 tokens named as digital commodities: Aptos, Avalanche, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Cardano, Chainlink, Dogecoin, Ether, Hedera, Litecoin, Polkadot, Shiba Inu, Solana, Stellar, Tezos, and XRP. The Texas example names four of those 16 as meeting the listing tests. The other 12 stay on the March list without a seat in the 85% core of this example.

THE FOUR THAT CLEAR THE EXAMPLE

The remaining March names are Aptos, Avalanche, Bitcoin Cash, Cardano, Chainlink, Dogecoin, Hedera, Litecoin, Polkadot, Shiba Inu, Stellar, and Tezos. Some of those coins have had their own 19b-4 fights. Grayscale’s Hedera and Polkadot trusts, and a Canary HBAR product, went through separate Commission proceedings in 2025 under Rule 5711(d). The new sleeve is the generic path that does not require a fresh name-by-name listing order, if a sponsor wants them in the 15% bucket and they fit the digital commodity definition.

Missing the example is not the same as failing the tests. Litecoin or Dogecoin could still qualify on futures or an ETF. The order simply did not put them in the worked example. The practical split is still real: the four named coins are the easy core, and everything else is a sleeve conversation or another 19b-4.

What Active Management Changes for These Trusts

The third change lets Commodity-Based Trust Shares use actively managed strategies. Until this rewrite, a generic crypto trust was built as a box that holds the coin and tracks it. An active mandate gives a manager discretion on timing and mix, inside the same surveillance tests and the same 15% cap.

The Commission had already allowed an individual active product. Release No. 34-105582, dated May 29, 2026, approved the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF under Nasdaq Rule 5711(d). Texas says it is folding that 15% buffer and that active-management approach into generic standards so each new trust does not need its own 19b-4 on those two points.

The definition that gates the sleeve is now in the Texas rulebook:

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 expectations of profits from the essential managerial efforts of others.

Nasdaq Texas Rule 5711(d), SEC Order 34-106268

Non-fungible assets and collectibles are kept out of that 15% buffer for generically listed trusts. The exchange can still file a separate 19b-4 for a product that holds something outside the definition. The generic door is narrower than the March taxonomy.

The Senate Faces a 60-Vote Cloture Test

H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, is the bill that would put digital commodity versus security into statute and split work between the SEC and the CFTC. The House passed it 294 to 134 in July 2025. The Senate Banking Committee voted 15 to 9 on May 14, 2026, and the bill went on the Senate calendar as Calendar No. 423 on June 1.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on the motion to proceed at about 4:52 a.m. ET on August 8, at the end of an overnight session before the August recess. The cloture vote is set for 2:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, September 15. That vote does not pass the bill. It decides whether the Senate will take it up.

THE CLOTURE MATH

• Threshold: Cloture on the motion to proceed needs 60 votes in a full Senate.
• Republican seats: The conference holds 53, so seven Democratic or independent votes are required if every Republican is yes.
• Calendar: The bill remains Calendar No. 423 even if cloture fails; leadership can try again after rewriting text.
• Agency view: SEC Chair Paul Atkins said on September 2 that he expects and hopes the bill will pass the Senate and reach the president.

Three fights are still open in the merged text: government ethics language on officials issuing tokens, illicit-finance provisions, and how stablecoin yield sits next to the GENIUS Act. Those are the votes that decide whether September 15 is a debate or a stall.

THREE FIGHTS STILL OPEN

• Ethics title: Limits on covered officials and spouses issuing or sponsoring a digital asset for consideration during public service, with a 2029 sunset in the July merged draft.
• Illicit finance: How far the bill goes on compliance duties for intermediaries, still unsettled heading into cloture.
• Stablecoin yield: Bank objections to rewards language that a May compromise tried to split into restricted passive yield and permitted activity-based rewards.

Agency classifications can be rewritten by a later Commission. A statute cannot. That is the gap this listing order does not close, and it is why a Texas rule and a Senate vote are running on the same calendar.

Congress Can Still Rewrite the Definition

Nasdaq Texas told the Commission it will file a conforming rule change if legislation defines “digital commodity” or a substantially similar term. The exchange built the definition off the March interpretation on purpose, and it left a hook for Congress to overtake it.

The first S-1 or 19b-4 that actually cites the 15% non-qualifying allowance will show whether sponsors want the sleeve or only the four-token core. An empty sleeve never delayed a launch. A filled sleeve is the product the generic standard newly allows: an 85% basket in Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP, plus a regulated bid for March-list coins that still lack the futures-plus-ETF pair.

Until that filing appears, Order 34-106268 is a listing template on a Texas venue, live while H.R. 3633 waits on 60 votes. The four names in the example are the core a manager can hold without a new Commission order. The sleeve is the part of the rule that still has to be used.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of an SEC listing order and related legislation. It is for information only and is not investment, legal, tax, or trading advice, and it is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP, any other token, or any exchange-traded product. Readers should consult a licensed financial adviser, attorney, or tax professional who can review their own facts before acting on any product, filing, or vote discussed here. Figures, filing statuses, and legislative calendars reflect the cited orders and public records as of the dates in those documents and can change with later Commission action or Senate votes.