THE SEC APPROVES A 3X BITCOIN ETF — IT TRACKS FUTURES AND RESETS EVERY DAY — TWO DAYS THAT LEAVE BITCOIN FLAT LEAVE THE FUND DOWN 5.5%

The SEC approved a 3x Bitcoin ETF on October 2, 2026. Staff signed the order under delegated authority, letting Cboe BZX list six Volatility Shares funds at once: 3x gold, silver, bitcoin, ether, crude oil and natural gas. Each one still needs an effective registration statement before it can trade.

The objective is "three times (3x) the daily performance" of bitcoin, before fees. The fund gets there with first- and second-month bitcoin futures, with cash posted as collateral. The order also lets it hold other funds that track bitcoin, and listed options.

Daily is the word to watch. Say bitcoin rises 10% one day and falls 9.09% the next. It ends where it started. The fund rises 30%, then falls 27.27%, and ends down about 5.5%. The order doesn't spell that out. The arithmetic does.

So who pays for the leverage? The holder, whenever bitcoin chops sideways. Three times the move is not three times the money. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $86,229.