By Martin
Bitcoin spot ETFs took nearly a decade to gain approval, while altcoin spot ETFs took only half a year.
In November 2025, an incredible shift occurred on Wall Street: Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin—altcoins once dismissed by mainstream financial institutions as "speculative toys"—collectively landed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq within just a few weeks, becoming regulated ETF products.
This transformation was primarily facilitated by the "Universal Listing Standards" approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September 2025, which opened a fast-track listing channel for crypto assets meeting specific criteria, allowing them to be listed and traded without undergoing rigorous case-by-case approval.
On September 17, 2025, the SEC approved the revised "Universal Listing Standards" proposal submitted by three major exchanges. Crypto assets meeting specific conditions can now be listed directly without individual approval.
The core admission criteria include: either the asset has at least 6 months of trading history in a CFTC-regulated futures market, and the exchange has a surveillance-sharing agreement with that market; or there is a precedent of an ETF holding at least 40% exposure to that asset. Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin all恰好 met these standards.
The concentrated listing of altcoin ETFs is reshaping the entire crypto market's structure and valuation logic. The launch of ETFs has intensified the liquidity stratification in the crypto market. The first tier consists of ETF assets like BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and DOGE, which possess compliant fiat on-ramps, allowing registered investment advisors and pension funds to allocate capital without barriers, enjoying a "compliance premium" and lower liquidity risk.
The second tier comprises non-ETF assets, including other Layer 1 and DeFi tokens. Lacking ETF channels, these assets will continue to rely on retail capital and on-chain liquidity, facing the risk of marginalization. This divergence is pushing the crypto market's valuation logic away from speculation-driven models towards a multipolar valuation based on compliant channels and institutional allocation.
As Bitcoin fell from its early-2025 high of $126,000 to around $80,000 by the end of November, the entire crypto market was shrouded in a downward shadow. However, this did not halt the listing pace of altcoin ETFs. Over the next 6-12 months, the market might see more assets (such as Avalanche and Chainlink) attempting to replicate this path.
ETFs will become the most critical dividing line distinguishing "core assets" from "peripheral assets." A market once driven by speculation and narrative is evolving towards a new order anchored by compliant channels and institutional allocation.
This process is now irreversible.
