MIAX Reinstates IBIT Expirations Under New Tier 2 Rules

MIAX, the US options exchange group, reinstated short-term expirations for options on BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) after initially dropping it from its third-quarter roster. The IBIT expirations will now return under MIAX Tier 2 rules, which have a lower threshold of more than $25 billion in assets under management and more than 5 million monthly options sides.

The new Tier 2 framework allows for Monday and Wednesday short-term expiries, which were previously not available to IBIT. This move comes after MIAX initially dropped IBIT from its Q3 list on July 1. However, it has been confirmed that the fund will return during Q3 instead of waiting for the next quarterly eligibility review.

According to BlackRock's historical fund data, IBIT had approximately $43.23 billion in net assets on June 30, which is below the former $50 billion gate but above the new $25 billion threshold. This suggests that AUM may have been a constraint for MIAX, although it has not provided an IBIT-specific June options-volume count or confirmed that AUM was the sole failed condition.