Forget the ticker for a moment and look at the mechanism, because that is where this filing actually lives. On June 9, 2026, the SEC published notice of a MEMX proposed rule change to amend two rules — Rule 19.3, which sets criteria for underlying securities, and Rule 19.4, which governs withdrawal of approval of underlying securities — to establish listing criteria and withdrawal standards for options on commodity-based trusts that hold multiple crypto assets. In plain terms: MEMX wants to allow options to trade on multi-crypto trust funds, and it is writing the rules for which funds qualify and when an exchange should pull options off a fund that no longer does.
To see why this is a step beyond the ETF approvals dominating the headlines, you have to understand what an option is and what it adds. A spot crypto trust lets you hold an asset. An option on that trust is a separate, derivative contract: the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell shares of the trust at a set price by a set date. Options are the building blocks of hedging and leverage. They let a holder buy downside protection, let a skeptic position against a fund without shorting it outright, and let traders express precise views with defined risk. Layering options on top of crypto trusts is how a simple holding becomes part of a full toolkit — and it is also how complexity and risk enter, which is exactly why the listing standards matter.
"The Exchange is filing with the Commission a proposed rule change to amend Rule 19.3, Criteria for Underlying Securities, and Rule 19.4, Withdrawal of Approval of Underlying Securities, to establish listing criteria and withdrawal standards for options on Commodity-Based Trusts that hold multiple crypto assets."— MEMX Proposed Rule Change, SR-MEMX, source
The phrase doing the heavy lifting is "hold multiple crypto assets." Early crypto trusts held a single asset — one coin per trust. A multi-crypto trust holds a basket. Writing options-listing rules for baskets is genuinely harder than for single-asset trusts, because the criteria have to account for the liquidity, market depth, and surveillance of each underlying asset in the basket, not just one. The way this actually works under the hood is that listing criteria set thresholds a fund must clear before options on it can trade — things like the fund's size, the trading characteristics of its shares, and the integrity of the markets for the underlying assets. Withdrawal standards are the mirror image: the conditions under which the exchange stops listing new options series and lets existing ones wind down if a fund stops meeting the bar. Together they form a gate that opens and, if necessary, closes.
This is a pattern, not a one-off
MEMX is not pioneering alone here, and the filing is honest about that. The record cross-references prior approvals on related exchanges — including a Nasdaq ISE order approving listing criteria for options on commodity-based trusts that hold multiple crypto assets — and notes that the relevant chapter rules are incorporated by reference into the rulebook of an affiliated exchange. In other words, MEMX is moving to match a standard that the options-exchange ecosystem is converging on. When multiple exchanges adopt parallel listing criteria for the same product type, that is the market structure standardizing a new instrument so it can trade in roughly the same way wherever it lists. For traders, consistency across venues is a feature: it means an option on a multi-crypto trust behaves predictably regardless of which exchange lists it.
What it changes, and what it doesn't
The honest framing is to separate the filing from the outcome. This is a notice of a proposed rule change — the SEC is soliciting comment, and it can approve, disapprove, or institute proceedings. Nothing trades on the strength of a notice. What the document establishes is the direction: the options market is building the rails to support derivatives on multi-asset crypto funds, with defined entry and exit standards rather than ad hoc, fund-by-fund decisions.
The withdrawal-standards half of the proposal deserves more attention than it usually gets, because delisting machinery is where investor protection quietly lives. Listing criteria decide what gets in; withdrawal standards decide what happens when a fund that once qualified stops qualifying — its assets shrink, an underlying market loses liquidity, or surveillance gaps emerge. Without clear withdrawal rules, an exchange could be stuck hosting options on a deteriorating product, or could yank them abruptly in a way that traps holders of existing contracts. Amending Rule 19.4 alongside 19.3 signals that MEMX is building both the on-ramp and the off-ramp at the same time, which is the responsible way to introduce a new options class. The off-ramp typically works by halting the listing of new option series while letting outstanding ones expire in an orderly fashion, so existing positions are not stranded. For a reader trying to judge whether a new derivatives product is being introduced carefully or carelessly, the presence and clarity of withdrawal standards is one of the most telling signals available.
It is also worth being clear about what an option is not. Listing options on a crypto trust does not make the underlying assets less volatile or the fund safer; if anything, options add leverage and the potential for sharp, defined-risk losses for traders who misjudge direction or timing. The listing and withdrawal criteria are investor-protection plumbing — they aim to ensure options only trade on funds with enough liquidity and surveillance to support an orderly derivatives market, and to provide an orderly off-ramp when a fund no longer qualifies. That plumbing is the substance of the filing. The mechanism, not the marketing, is the story: a derivatives layer is being standardized on top of multi-crypto trusts, and the rules for when it turns on and off are being written down. Whether and how it ships next depends on the comment file and the SEC's eventual decision.