The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave the green light for the trading of options tied to ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

On Wednesday, the regulator approved a filing from Nasdaq ISE, filed last July, which asked to list options contracts on the BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA). Options are a popular trading vehicle to leverage and hedge risk and are especially attractive to institutional investors who are looking to control large amounts of shares.

The Commission had until today to make a decision. James Seyffart, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said the approval was “100% expected.”

The options apply specifically to ETHA, meaning that BlackRock’s product is the only spot ether ETF that options can be traded on.

Other funds are listed on the New York Stock Exchange’s Arca and Cboe.

Ukraine’s top financial regulator is floating the idea of taxing cryptocurrency as personal income, with possible carveouts for certain foreign asset-backed stablecoins, under a newly proposed taxation matrix published on Tuesday.

In a translated letter introducing the potential new approach, Ruslan Magomedov, head of Ukraine’s National Securities and Stock Market Commission, said that effective tax policy is a necessary step in preventing financial abuse and facilitating the “legal and responsible use of digital assets.”

“Establishing fair and understandable taxation rules is also a prerequisite for attracting investment and integrating the Ukrainian virtual asset market into the global financial market,” Magomedov added.

Under the NSSMC’s suggested tax scheme, certain crypto transactions — essentially those in which non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies are cashed out for fiat currency or exchanged for goods or services, and during which there were no financial losses from the transaction — would be taxed at Ukraine’s standard personal income tax rate of 18%, plus the additional 5% wartime levy that went into effect last December.

Crypto-to-crypto transactions would not be subject to taxation under the proposed tax matrix, which is in line with how several other European countries including Austria and France, as well as crypto-friendly jurisdictions like Singapore, handle crypto taxation.

Because Ukraine’s tax code exempts any income generated from transactions with foreign exchange values from being taxed, the NSSMC suggested “it makes sense to consider a preferential rate or exemption from taxation” for foreign asset-backed stablecoins and certain asset-referenced tokens (ARTs). The suggested preferential tax rate under the matrix could be either 5% or 9%.

The matrix also offered a variety of taxation options for other types of crypto transactions, including mining, which the NSSMC suggested could be considered a “business activity”; staking, which the regulator said could either be “considered as business captive income” or taxed only at the cash-out stage; as well as hard-forks and airdrops, which the regulator said could either be taxed as ordinary income or only at the cash-out stage.

Ukraine had previously introduced a draft law similarly amending the country’s tax code to cover cryptocurrency in 2023. A 2024 analysis from Swiss blockchain analytics firm Global Ledger found that Ukraine could stand to collect over $200 million in annual taxes from crypto transactions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky officially legalized the country’s cryptocurrency sector in 2022, determining the industry’s regulators and giving them the go-ahead to create specific regulations. The National Bank of Ukraine is currently working on a draft law based on the European Union’s (EU) Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation.

Ukraine has been a candidate for EU membership since 2022.

CoinDesk reached out to the NSSMC for a comment.

Under far heavier pressure than the rather modest decline in bitcoin (BTC) over the past few days would suggest, crypto stocks are posting outsized gains as markets surge higher on the Trump tariff pause.

Among the movers are Strategy (MSTR), which rose 25%, while Coinbase (COIN) climbed 21%. Marathon Digital (MARA) and Riot Platforms (RIOT) were among the bitcoin miners posting gains in the teens.

Other movers included Semler Scientific (SMLR) and Fold (FLD), with advances closer to 10%.

The strong uptick was in line with the big move in other U.S. stocks — the Nasdaq rocketing more than 10% higher and the S&P 500 8%.

Bitcoin climbed above $82,000, up more than 6% over the past 24 hours.

The big gains come after a panicky few days in markets that nearly turned into a free fall on Monday and again overnight following President Trump’s punitive tariff plan announced last Wednesday.

“I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE,» said the president in a Truth Social posting midday today that set off the major rally.