Nasdaq filed on Jan 21 to remove the 25,000-contract position and exercise limits on Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF options covering BlackRock’s IBIT and ETHA, Fidelity, Grayscale, Bitwise, ARK/21Shares, VanEck and others. The SEC waived the usual 30-day waiting period, making the change effective immediately. Nasdaq says the change treats crypto assets the same as other qualifying options and similar rule updates are expected across other platforms. BlackRock’s IBIT ranks 9th in U.S. options open interest with >7.7M contracts. Recent ETF flows showed $1.58B in outflows over three days (BlackRock - $356.6M, Fidelity FBTC - $287.7M) but the first two trading days of 2026 had $1.16B net inflows; IBIT added $888M YTD and total crypto ETF AUM is about $134B. Analysts note ETFs are absorbing more than 100% of newly mined Bitcoin supply.

Nasdaq removed restrictive 25,000-contract position/exercise limits for BTC and ETH ETF options and the SEC waived the 30-day wait, making the change effective immediately (fact). This increases capacity/liquidity for listed crypto ETF options; IBIT already has >7.7M options open interest and ETFs hold ~$134B AUM while absorbing >100% of newly mined BTC supply (fact), which supports bullish market pressure. Offset by $1.58B of three-day outflows noted in the summary (fact).