Altcoin ETFs are about to be listed in clusters.

The Bitcoin spot ETF took nearly ten years to be approved, while the altcoin spot ETF only took half a year.

In November 2025, Wall Street underwent an incredible transformation: Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin—these altcoins that were once regarded as "speculative toys" by mainstream financial institutions—collectively landed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq as regulated ETF products in just a few weeks.

This transformation is mainly attributed to 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 that meet specific conditions, allowing them to be traded without undergoing strict individual approvals.

On September 17, 2025, the SEC approved the revised proposal for the "Universal Listing Standards" put forward by three major exchanges, allowing certain cryptocurrencies that meet specific conditions to be listed directly without individual approvals. The core entry requirements include: either the asset has at least 6 months of trading history on a futures market regulated by the CFTC, and the exchange has a monitoring agreement with that market; or there are precedents of ETFs holding at least 40% exposure to the asset in the market, and Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin all happen to meet these standards.

The centralized listing of altcoin ETFs is reshaping the entire landscape and valuation logic of the crypto market. The launch of ETFs has intensified the liquidity layering in the crypto market, with the first tier consisting of ETF assets such as BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and DOGE. These assets have compliant fiat entry points, allowing registered investment advisors and pension funds to allocate without barriers, enjoying "compliance premium" and lower liquidity risks.

The second tier consists of non-ETF assets, including other Layer 1 and DeFi tokens. Due to the lack of ETF channels, these assets will continue to rely on retail funds and on-chain liquidity, facing the risk of being marginalized. This differentiation is driving the valuation logic of the crypto market from speculation-driven to a polarized valuation based on compliance channels and institutional allocations.

As Bitcoin fell from a high of $126,000 in early 2025 to about $80,000 by the end of November, the entire crypto market remained shrouded in a downward shadow. However, this has not halted the listing pace of altcoin ETFs, and in the next 6-12 months, the market may see more assets (such as Avalanche, Chainlink) attempting to replicate this path.

The ETF will become the most important watershed distinguishing "core assets" from "marginal assets". A market that was once driven by speculation and narrative is evolving into a new order anchored by compliant channels and institutional allocations. This process is already irreversible.