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Author: Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer of Bitwise; Translated by: AIMan@Bitlink Vision
In my investment memo, I usually try to give some opinions on market dynamics.For example, last week I wrote an article aboutWhy is it “Solana Season” nowarticles, andSolana, Ethereum’s number one competitor, will rise strongly at the end of the year (see previous articles from Bitchain Vision”Solana will usher in an explosive market”).
Solana has risen 7.72% since then, which is good.
But watching the cryptocurrency market at the moment is like watching a pre-Super Bowl show.Rate cuts, surge in ETP inflows, growing concerns about the US dollar, and strong momentum for tokenization and stablecoins,It all indicates a wonderful rebound at the end of the year.However,As investors, most of us are on the wait-and-see state.What is the reason?
first,Historically, August and September were the two worst-performing months of the year for cryptocurrencies.But the bigger reason is that major progress—such as the recent approval of Bitcoin ETP by major brokers, or Congress’ progress in new legislation—it often takes time to take effect.
So, while we are still waiting, I would like to introduce to you the latest progress of the US SEC in cryptocurrency ETP approval.In my opinion, the US SEC is preparing to completely relax this market.
General Listing Standards
Currently, the US SEC will approve spot cryptocurrency ETP based on specific circumstances.If you want to launch a spot cryptocurrency ETP based on new assets in the United States (such as Solana ETP or Chainlink ETP), you must submit a special application to the U.S. SEC for approval.
In your document, you have to prove something about the market: it has enough liquidity to support ETP, it is not manipulated, etc.
To put it gently, it takes time.The US SEC review process for each application is up to 240 days, and even so, there is no guarantee that it will be approved.Example A: The first spot Bitcoin ETP application was submitted in 2013, but the SEC did not approve it until 2024.Applying has always been a costly and risky job.
But just as we discuss,The US SEC is developing “general listing standards” for cryptocurrency ETP.The concept is: According to the general listing standards, the SEC can almost guarantee approval as long as the application meets certain clearly stipulated requirements.Approval speeds are also fast: applications will be approved in 75 days or less.
What are the requirements?
The US SEC is still working to solve this problem and listen to industry opinions.Currently, most proposals believe that as long as the futures contract of the underlying asset is traded on a regulated U.S. futures exchange, issuers should be able to promote the emerging cryptocurrency ETP.Eligible futures exchanges include giants such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Options Exchange (Cboe), but may also include lesser-known derivatives platforms such as the Coinbase Derivatives Exchange and Bitnomial.Assuming this broader list can pass smoothly, the list of crypto assets that may soon obtain ETP will include Solana, XRP, Chainlink, Cardano, Avalanche, Polkadot, Hedera, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.This list may get longer and longer as more futures contracts are launched.
What history tells us
Adoption of the universal listing standard, which may be implemented as early as October, could lead to a large number of new cryptocurrency ETP.This is intuitive, but the history of ETFs also confirms this.
Until the end of 2019, all ETFs (including stock ETFs, bond ETFs, etc.) followed the same one-by-one regulatory approval model as cryptocurrency ETP.But in 2019, the US SEC passed the “ETF rules” to formulate general listing standards for stock and bond ETP.What followed was a surge in ETF circulation.
The following figure is from ETFGI, showing the number of listed ETFs in the United States (by year).Before the implementation of the ETF rules, the ETF industry had an average of 117 new ETFs listed each year.This number has more than tripled since the implementation of the ETF rules to 370 per year.
General Listing Standards significantly accelerate the pace of ETF issuance
Source: Bitwise Asset Management, the data comes from ETFGI.ETFGI data comes from ETF/ETP sponsors, exchanges, regulatory documents, Thomson Reuters/Liber, Bloomberg, public sources and internally generated data.The data range is from January 2003 to July 2025.
As the number of ETFs increases, the number of ETF issuers is also surging because it becomes very easy for companies to launch ETFs.
I expect the same thing to happen here.We should see dozens of single-asset crypto ETPs, and the rise of index-based crypto ETPs, and I estimate we will see many, if not most, traditional asset management companies pushing for emerging crypto ETPs.
What does this mean for crypto asset prices
It is easy for investors to misjudgment what this means to the market.The existence of cryptocurrency ETP itself does not guarantee a large amount of capital inflow.The underlying assets need to have fundamentals.
For example, the Ethereum Spot ETP was launched in June 2024, but it didn’t really start attracting assets until April 2025, when interest in stablecoins (mainly based on Ethereum) began to heat up.Similarly, I suspect that unless assets such as BCH themselves are reborn, ETP built on assets such as BCH will also be difficult to attract capital inflows.
However, the emergence of ETP means that once fundamentals begin to change, assets will be more vulnerable to shocks.Most of the global funds are controlled by traditional investors, and with ETP, it becomes much easier for these investors to allocate cryptocurrencies.
Here is a more important, and perhaps more difficult to quantify: ETP reduces the mystery of cryptocurrencies.They make cryptocurrencies less daunting, more visible, and more easily accepted by ordinary investors.For cryptocurrency Aboriginals with more than a dozen wallet addresses, Chainlink, Avalanche or Polkadot is no longer a stranger token; they are now a stock code that anyone can access through a brokerage account.This gives people a better understanding of real-life cryptocurrencies and their rich use cases.They are more likely to notice articles by Chainlink in partnership with Mastercard to pay, articles by Wyoming using Avalanche to issue stablecoins, or articles by Standard Chartered exploring XRP-based cross-border payment technology.
The adoption of general listing standards by the US SEC marks the “mature” of the cryptocurrency industry and the sign that our industry has entered the top market.But this is just the beginning.
