Rural Housing Service
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
International Trade Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Army Department
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Indian Affairs Bureau
Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Transit Administration
Consult the Reader Aids section at the end of this issue for phone numbers, online resources, finding aids, and notice of recently enacted public laws.
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Rural Housing Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Final rule; correction.
The Rural Housing Service (RHS or Agency), a Rural Development (RD) agency of USDA, published a final rule on August 15, 2024, to amend the current regulations regarding Special Servicing Options and adjust the Mortgage Recovery Advance (MRA) process. The February 11, 2025, effective date of that final rule is being deferred to April 14, 2025.
Effective February 11, 2025.
Ticia Weare, Finance and Loan Analyst, Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Division, Rural Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture, STOP 0784, South Agriculture Building, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250-0784. Telephone: (314) 679-6919; or email:
In FR Doc. 2024-18291 (Docket No. RHS-24-SFH-0001) appearing at 89 FR 66189 in the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
Final rule.
The FAA is superseding Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2017-21-05, which applied to certain Saab AB Model 340A (SAAB/SF340A) and SAAB 340B airplanes. AD 2017-21-05 required revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate airworthiness limitations, including new inspection tasks for the drag brace support fitting of the main landing gear (MLG) and tasks related to the corrosion prevention and control program (CPCP). This AD was prompted by a determination that new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations are necessary. This AD continues to require the actions in AD 2017-21-05 and requires revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations, as specified in a European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) AD, which is incorporated by reference (IBR). The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.
This AD is effective March 19, 2025.
The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference of a certain publication listed in this AD as of March 19, 2025.
The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference of a certain other publication listed in this AD as of November 27, 2017 (82 FR 48917, October 23, 2017).
• For EASA material identified in this AD, contact EASA, Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer 3, 50668 Cologne, Germany; telephone +49 221 8999 000; email
• For Saab AB material identified in this AD, contact Saab AB, SE-581 88, Linköping, Sweden; telephone +46 13 18 5591; fax +46 13 18 4874; email
• You may view this material at the FAA, Airworthiness Products Section, Operational Safety Branch, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call 206-231-3195. It is also available at
Shahram Daneshmandi, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; telephone 206-231-3220; email
The FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend 14 CFR part 39 to supersede AD 2017-21-05, Amendment 39-19076 (82 FR 48917, October 23, 2017) (AD 2017-21-05). AD 2017-21-05 applied to certain Saab AB Model 340A (SAAB/SF340A) and SAAB 340B airplanes. AD 2017-21-05 required revising the maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate airworthiness limitations, including new inspection tasks for the drag brace support fitting of the MLG and to implement CPCP-related tasks. The FAA issued AD 2017-21-05 to prevent reduced structural integrity of the airplane.
The NPRM published in the
In the NPRM, the FAA proposed to continue to require the actions required in AD 2017-21-05. In the NPRM, the FAA also proposed to require revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate additional new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations, as specified in EASA AD 2024-0042. The FAA is issuing this AD to prevent reduced structural integrity of the airplane.
You may examine the MCAI in the AD docket at
The FAA received a comment from an individual who supported the NPRM without change.
This product has been approved by the aviation authority of another country and is approved for operation in the United States. Pursuant to the FAA's bilateral agreement with this State of Design Authority, it has notified the FAA of the unsafe condition described in the MCAI referenced above. The FAA reviewed the relevant data, considered the comment received, and determined that air safety requires adopting this AD as proposed. Accordingly, the FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on this product. Except for minor editorial changes, this AD is adopted as proposed in the NPRM. None of the changes will increase the economic burden on any operator.
The FAA reviewed EASA AD 2024-0042. This material specifies new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations for airplane structures and safe life limits.
This AD also requires SAAB 340 Airworthiness Limitation Manual, Revision 1, dated December 1, 2016, which the Director of the Federal Register approved for incorporation by reference as of November 27, 2017 (82 FR 48917, October 23, 2017).
This material is reasonably available because the interested parties have access to it through their normal course of business or by the means identified in the
The FAA estimates that this AD affects 81 airplanes of U.S. registry. The FAA estimates the following costs to comply with this AD:
The FAA estimates the total cost per operator for the retained actions from AD 2017-21-05 to be $7,650 (90 work-hours × $85 per work-hour).
The FAA has determined that revising the existing maintenance or inspection program takes an average of 90 work-hours per operator, although the agency recognizes that this number may vary from operator to operator. Since operators incorporate maintenance or inspection program changes for their affected fleet(s), the FAA has determined that a per-operator estimate is more accurate than a per-airplane estimate.
The FAA estimates the total cost per operator for the new actions to be $7,650 (90 work-hours × $85 per work-hour).
Title 49 of the United States Code specifies the FAA's authority to issue rules on aviation safety. Subtitle I, section 106, describes the authority of the FAA Administrator. Subtitle VII: Aviation Programs, describes in more detail the scope of the Agency's authority.
The FAA is issuing this rulemaking under the authority described in Subtitle VII, Part A, Subpart III, Section 44701: General requirements. Under that section, Congress charges the FAA with promoting safe flight of civil aircraft in air commerce by prescribing regulations for practices, methods, and procedures the Administrator finds necessary for safety in air commerce. This regulation is within the scope of that authority because it addresses an unsafe condition that is likely to exist or develop on products identified in this rulemaking action.
This AD will not have federalism implications under Executive Order 13132. This AD will not have a substantial direct effect on the States, on the relationship between the national government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government.
For the reasons discussed above, I certify that this AD:
(1) Is not a “significant regulatory action” under Executive Order 12866,
(2) Will not affect intrastate aviation in Alaska, and
(3) Will not have a significant economic impact, positive or negative, on a substantial number of small entities under the criteria of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.
Air transportation, Aircraft, Aviation safety, Incorporation by reference, Safety.
Accordingly, under the authority delegated to me by the Administrator, the FAA amends 14 CFR part 39 as follows:
49 U.S.C. 106(g), 40113, 44701.
This airworthiness directive (AD) is effective March 19, 2025.
This AD replaces AD 2017-21-05, Amendment 39-19076 (82 FR 48917, October 23, 2017) (AD 2017-21-05).
This AD applies to all Saab AB (formerly known as Saab AB, Support and Services) Model 340A (SAAB/SF340A) and SAAB 340B airplanes, certificated in any category.
Air Transport Association (ATA) of America Code 05, Time Limits/Maintenance Checks.
This AD was prompted by a determination that new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations are necessary. The FAA is issuing this AD to prevent reduced structural integrity of the airplane.
Comply with this AD within the compliance times specified, unless already done.
This paragraph restates the requirements of paragraph (g) of AD 2017-21-05, with no changes. For airplanes with an original certificate of airworthiness or original export
This paragraph restates the requirements of paragraph (h) of AD 2017-21-05, with a new exception. Except as required by paragraph (i) of this AD, after the maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, has been revised as required by paragraph (g) of this AD, no alternative actions (
Except as specified in paragraph (j) of this AD: Comply with all required actions and compliance times specified in, and in accordance with, European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) AD 2024-0042, dated February 13, 2024 (EASA AD 2024-0042). Accomplishing the revision of the existing maintenance or inspection program required by this paragraph terminates the requirements of paragraph (g) of this AD.
(1) This AD does not adopt the requirements specified in paragraphs (1) and (2) of EASA AD 2024-0042.
(2) Paragraph (3) of EASA AD 2024-0042 specifies revising “the approved AMP” within 12 months after its effective date, but this AD requires revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, within 90 days after the effective date of this AD.
(3) The initial compliance time for doing the tasks specified in paragraph (3) of EASA AD 2024-0042 is at the applicable “limitations” and “associated thresholds” as incorporated by the requirements of paragraph (3) of EASA AD 2024-0042, or within 90 days after the effective date of this AD, whichever occurs later.
(4) This AD does not adopt the provisions specified in paragraphs (4) and (5) of EASA AD 2024-0042.
(5) This AD does not adopt the “Remarks” section of EASA AD 2024-0042.
After the existing maintenance or inspection program has been revised as required by paragraph (i) of this AD, no alternative actions (
The following provisions also apply to this AD:
(1)
(2)
For more information about this AD, contact Shahram Daneshmandi, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; telephone 206-231-3220; email
(1) The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference (IBR) of the material listed in this paragraph under 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51.
(2) You must use this material as applicable to do the actions required by this AD, unless this AD specifies otherwise.
(3) The following material was approved for IBR on March 19, 2025.
(i) European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) AD 2024-0042, dated February 13, 2024.
(ii) [Reserved]
(4) The following material was approved for IBR on November 27, 2017 (82 FR 48917, October 23, 2017).
(i) SAAB 340 Airworthiness Limitation Manual, Revision 1, dated December 1, 2016.
(ii) [Reserved]
(5) For the EASA material identified in this AD, contact EASA, Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer 3, 50668 Cologne, Germany; telephone +49 221 8999 000; email
(6) For Saab AB material identified in this AD, contact Saab AB, SE-581 88, Linköping, Sweden; telephone +46 13 18 5591; fax +46 13 18 4874; email
(7) You may view this material at the FAA, Airworthiness Products Section, Operational Safety Branch, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call 206-231-3195.
(8) You may view this material at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). For information on the availability of this material at NARA, visit
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
Final rule.
The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain DAHER AEROSPACE (DAHER) Model TBM 700 airplanes. This AD was prompted by certain existing emergency procedures in the pilot's operating handbook (POH) that cannot be fully accomplished since certain equipment cannot be disconnected by the pilot(s) from the flight deck. This AD requires revising the existing POH for your airplane to provide the flight crew with corrected emergency procedures. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.
This AD is effective March 19, 2025.
The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference of a certain publication listed in this AD as of March 19, 2025.
• For DAHER material identified in this AD, contact DAHER AEROSPACE Customer Support, Airplane Business Unit, Tarbes—Cedex 9, France 65921; phone: (833) 826-2273; email:
• You may view this material at the FAA, Airworthiness Products Section, Operational Safety Branch, 901 Locust, Kansas City, MO 64106. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call (816) 329-4148. It is also available at
Fred Guerin, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; phone: (206) 231-2346; email:
The FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend 14 CFR part 39 by adding an AD that would apply to certain DAHER Model TBM 700 airplanes. The NPRM published in the
To address the unsafe condition, DAHER published Temporary Revision 30, dated July 2023, to the DAHER Pilot's Operating Handbook, TBM 960, Edition 0, dated January 27, 2022 (DAHER TR 30), which removes the procedures “Cabin Electrical Fire or Smoke During Flight” and “Smoke elimination” of the DAHER Model TBM 960 Pilot's Operating Handbook, Edition 0, dated January 27, 2022, and replaces them with the new emergency procedure “Fire or Smoke in Flight”.
In the NPRM, the FAA proposed to require revising the existing POH for your airplane to provide the flight crew with corrected emergency procedures. The owner/operator (pilot) holding at least a private pilot certificate may revise the existing POH for your airplane and must enter compliance with the applicable paragraph of the AD into the airplane maintenance records in accordance with 14 CFR 43.9(a) and 91.417(a)(2)(v). The pilot may perform this action because it only involves revising the POH. This action could be performed equally well by a pilot or a mechanic. This is an exception to the FAA's standard maintenance regulations.
The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.
You may examine the MCAI in the AD docket at
The FAA received no comments on the NPRM or on the determination of the costs.
These products have been approved by the aviation authority of another country and are approved for operation in the United States. Pursuant to the FAA's bilateral agreement with this State of Design Authority, it has notified the FAA of the unsafe condition described in the MCAI referenced above. The FAA reviewed the relevant data and determined that air safety requires adopting this AD as proposed. Accordingly, the FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products. This AD is adopted as proposed in the NPRM.
The FAA reviewed DAHER TR 30, which removes the procedures “Cabin Electrical Fire or Smoke During Flight” and “Smoke elimination” and replaces them with the new emergency procedure “Fire or Smoke in Flight.”
This material is reasonably available because the interested parties have access to it through their normal course of business or by the means identified in the
Although the applicability of this AD is certain serial-numbered DAHER Model TBM 700 airplanes, the TR that needs to be inserted into the applicable POH for the owner/operator's airplane is Temporary Revision 30, dated July 2023, to DAHER Pilot's Operating Handbook TBM 960, Edition 0, dated January 27, 2022. The FAA type certificate data sheet (TCDS) specifies Model TBM 700 airplanes, but the notes in the FAA TCDS indicate that, depending on the airplane's serial number and any optional modification installed, an affected Model TBM 700 airplane could have a trade name that includes a “900” designation, including TBM 900, TBM 910, TBM 930, TBM 940, or TBM 960.
EASA AD 2023-0164 includes requirements to “inform all flight crews and, thereafter, operating the airplane accordingly” and this AD does not specifically require those actions because those actions are already required by FAA regulations.
The FAA estimates that this AD affects 930 airplanes of U.S. registry.
The FAA estimates the following costs to comply with this AD:
Title 49 of the United States Code specifies the FAA's authority to issue rules on aviation safety. Subtitle I, section 106, describes the authority of the FAA Administrator. Subtitle VII: Aviation Programs, describes in more detail the scope of the Agency's authority.
The FAA is issuing this rulemaking under the authority described in Subtitle VII, Part A, Subpart III, Section 44701: General requirements. Under that section, Congress charges the FAA with promoting safe flight of civil aircraft in air commerce by prescribing regulations for practices, methods, and procedures the Administrator finds necessary for safety in air commerce. This regulation is within the scope of that authority because it addresses an unsafe condition that is likely to exist or develop on products identified in this rulemaking action.
This AD will not have federalism implications under Executive Order 13132. This AD will not have a substantial direct effect on the States, on the relationship between the national government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government.
For the reasons discussed above, I certify that this AD:
(1) Is not a “significant regulatory action” under Executive Order 12866,
(2) Will not affect intrastate aviation in Alaska, and
(3) Will not have a significant economic impact, positive or negative, on a substantial number of small entities under the criteria of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.
Air transportation, Aircraft, Aviation safety, Incorporation by reference, Safety.
Accordingly, under the authority delegated to me by the Administrator, the FAA amends 14 CFR part 39 as follows:
49 U.S.C. 106(g), 40113, 44701.
This airworthiness directive (AD) is effective March 19, 2025.
None.
This AD applies to DAHER AEROSPACE (type certificate previously held by SOCATA) Model TBM 700 airplanes, manufacturer serial numbers 687 through 1491 inclusive, certificated in any category.
Joint Aircraft System Component (JASC) Code 2600, Fire Protection System.
This AD was prompted by certain emergency procedures in the existing pilot's operating handbook (POH) that cannot be fully accomplished since certain equipment cannot be disconnected by the pilot(s) from the flight deck. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition. The unsafe condition, if not addressed, could lead to increased flight crew workload during critical phases of flight, resulting in reduced control of the airplane.
Comply with this AD within the compliance times specified, unless already done.
Within 30 days after the effective date of this AD, revise the existing POH for your airplane by incorporating Temporary Revision 30, dated July 2023, to the DAHER Pilot's Operating Handbook, TBM 960, Edition 0, dated January 27, 2022. The owner/operator (pilot) holding at least a private pilot certificate may revise the existing POH for your airplane and must enter compliance with the applicable paragraph of this AD into the airplane maintenance records in accordance with 14 CFR 43.9(a) and 91.417(a)(2)(v). The record must be maintained as required by 14 CFR 91.417, 121.380, or 135.439.
The Manager, International Validation Branch, FAA, has the authority to approve AMOCs for this AD, if requested using the procedures found in 14 CFR 39.19. In accordance with 14 CFR 39.19, send your request to your principal inspector or local Flight Standards District Office, as appropriate. If sending information directly to the manager of the International Validation Branch, mail it to the address identified in paragraph (i) of this AD or email to:
For more information about this AD, contact Fred Guerin, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; phone: (206) 231-2346; email:
(1) The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference (IBR) of the material listed in this paragraph under 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51.
(2) You must use this material as applicable to do the actions required by this AD, unless the AD specifies otherwise.
(i) Temporary Revision 30, dated July 2023, to the DAHER Pilot's Operating Handbook, TBM 960, Edition 0, dated January 27, 2022.
(ii) [Reserved]
(3) For DAHER material identified in this AD, contact DAHER AEROSPACE Customer Support, Airplane Business Unit, Tarbes—Cedex 9, France 65921; phone: (833) 826-2273; email:
(4) You may view this material at the FAA, Airworthiness Products Section, Operational Safety Branch, 901 Locust, Kansas City, MO 64106. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call (817) 222-5110.
(5) You may view this material at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). For information on the availability of this material at NARA, visit
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
Final rule.
The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain ATR—GIE Avions de Transport Régional Model ATR42 and ATR72 airplanes. This AD was prompted by a report that a flight deck emergency
This AD is effective March 19, 2025.
The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference of a certain publication listed in this AD as of March 19, 2025.
• For EASA material identified in this AD, contact EASA, Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer 3, 50668 Cologne, Germany; telephone +49 221 8999 000; email
• You may view this material at the FAA, Airworthiness Products Section, Operational Safety Branch, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call 206-231-3195. It is also available at
Shahram Daneshmandi, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; phone: 206-231-3220; email:
The FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend 14 CFR part 39 by adding an AD that would apply to certain ATR—GIE Avions de Transport Régional Model ATR42 and ATR72 airplanes. The NPRM published in the
In the NPRM, the FAA proposed to require inspection of the flight deck emergency escape hatch drain hose for discrepancies and applicable corrective actions, and prohibit accomplishment of maintenance actions using the instructions of certain maintenance tasks, as specified in EASA AD 2024-0090. The FAA is issuing this AD to address these installation nonconformities, which could prevent flightcrew evacuation from the airplane in case of an emergency, possibly resulting in personal injury.
You may examine the MCAI in the AD docket at
The FAA received comments from Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) who supported the NPRM without change.
This product has been approved by the aviation authority of another country and is approved for operation in the United States. Pursuant to the FAA's bilateral agreement with this State of Design Authority, it has notified the FAA of the unsafe condition described in the MCAI referenced above. The FAA reviewed the relevant data, considered the comment received, and determined that air safety requires adopting this AD as proposed. Accordingly, the FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on this product. Except for minor editorial changes, this AD is adopted as proposed in the NPRM. None of the changes will increase the economic burden on any operator.
EASA AD 2024-0090 specifies procedures for inspecting for discrepancies of the flight deck emergency escape hatch drain hose (including checking for the presence of a fastening system on the drain hoses at the level of the escape hatch drains and checking whether a drain hose slides freely in the clamp (collar)). Discrepancies include any zip-tie/ty-rap that is detected and any drain hose that does not slide freely in the clamp. Corrective actions include removing the fastening system and replacing the clamp. EASA AD 2024-0090 also prohibits accomplishment of maintenance actions using the instructions of Maintenance Procedure (MP) Tasks ATR-A-52-22-XX-00ZZZ-520Z-A and ATR-A-52-22-XX-00ZZZ-720Z-A issued December 31, 2023, or earlier. This material is reasonably available because the interested parties have access to it through their normal course of business or by the means identified in the
The FAA estimates that this AD affects 80 airplanes of U.S. registry. The FAA estimates the following costs to comply with this AD:
The FAA estimates the following costs to do any replacement that would be required based on the results of any required actions. The FAA has no way of determining the number of aircraft that might need this replacement:
The FAA has included all known costs in its cost estimate. According to the manufacturer, however, some or all of the costs of this AD may be covered under warranty, thereby reducing the cost impact on affected operators.
Title 49 of the United States Code specifies the FAA's authority to issue rules on aviation safety. Subtitle I, section 106, describes the authority of the FAA Administrator. Subtitle VII: Aviation Programs, describes in more detail the scope of the Agency's authority.
The FAA is issuing this rulemaking under the authority described in Subtitle VII, Part A, Subpart III, Section 44701: General requirements. Under that section, Congress charges the FAA with promoting safe flight of civil aircraft in air commerce by prescribing regulations for practices, methods, and procedures the Administrator finds necessary for safety in air commerce. This regulation is within the scope of that authority because it addresses an unsafe condition that is likely to exist or develop on products identified in this rulemaking action.
This AD will not have federalism implications under Executive Order 13132. This AD will not have a substantial direct effect on the States, on the relationship between the national government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government.
For the reasons discussed above, I certify that this AD:
(1) Is not a “significant regulatory action” under Executive Order 12866,
(2) Will not affect intrastate aviation in Alaska, and
(3) Will not have a significant economic impact, positive or negative, on a substantial number of small entities under the criteria of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.
Air transportation, Aircraft, Aviation safety, Incorporation by reference, Safety.
Accordingly, under the authority delegated to me by the Administrator, the FAA amends 14 CFR part 39 as follows:
49 U.S.C. 106(g), 40113, 44701.
This airworthiness directive (AD) is effective March 19, 2025.
None.
This AD applies to the ATR—GIE Avions de Transport Régional airplanes, certificated in any category, specified in paragraphs (c)(1) and (2) of this AD and identified in European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) AD 2024-0090, dated April 16, 2024 (EASA AD 2024-0090).
(1) Model ATR42-200, -300, -320, and -500 airplanes.
(2) Model ATR72-101, -102, -201, -202, -211, -212, and -212A airplanes.
Air Transport Association (ATA) of America Code 52, Doors.
This AD was prompted by a report that a flight deck emergency escape hatch was difficult to open due to the hose ends being connected to the hatch with incorrect parts and/or installed collars with a too-small diameter that would not permit the drain hose to slide inside. The FAA is issuing this AD to address such installation nonconformities, which could affect drainage of the hatch. The unsafe condition, if not addressed, could prevent flightcrew evacuation in case of an emergency, possibly resulting in personal injury.
Comply with this AD within the compliance times specified, unless already done.
Except as specified in paragraphs (h) and (i) of this AD: Comply with all required actions and compliance times specified in, and in accordance with, EASA AD 2024-0090.
(1) Where EASA AD 2024-0090 refers to its effective date, this AD requires using the effective date of this AD.
(2) This AD does not adopt the “Remarks” section of EASA AD 2024-0090.
(3) Where EASA AD 2024-0090 states “any discrepancy, as defined in the AOM, is detected” for this AD replace that text with “any fastening system (
Although the material referenced in EASA AD 2024-0090 specifies to submit certain information to the manufacturer, this AD does not include that requirement.
The following provisions also apply to this AD:
(1)
(2)
For more information about this AD, contact Shahram Daneshmandi, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue,
(1) The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference of the material listed in this paragraph under 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51.
(2) You must use this material as applicable to do the actions required by this AD, unless this AD specifies otherwise.
(i) European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) AD 2024-0090, dated April 16, 2024.
(ii) [Reserved]
(3) For EASA material identified in this AD, contact EASA, Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer 3, 50668 Cologne, Germany; telephone +49 221 8999 000; email
(4) You may view this material at the FAA, Airworthiness Products Section, Operational Safety Branch, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call 206-231-3195.
(5) You may view this material at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). For information on the availability of this material at NARA, visit
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
Final rule.
The FAA is superseding Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2019-22-02, which applied to all The Boeing Company Model 747-200B, 747-200C, 747-200F, 747-300, 747-400, 747-400D, 747-400F, 747-8F, and 747-8 series airplanes. AD 2019-22-02 required identifying the part number, and the serial number if applicable, of the Captain's and First Officer's seats, and applicable on-condition actions for affected seats. AD 2019-22-02 also required a one-time detailed inspection and repetitive checks of the horizontal movement system (HMS) of the Captain's and First Officer's seats, and applicable on-condition actions. This AD was prompted by reports of uncommanded fore and aft movement of the Captain's and First Officer's seats. This AD requires the actions in AD 2019-22-02 and adds an inspection of previously omitted part numbers. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.
This AD is effective March 19, 2025.
The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference of certain publications listed in this AD as of March 19, 2025.
• For Boeing material identified in this AD, contact Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Attention: Contractual & Data Services (C&DS), 2600 Westminster Boulevard, MC 110-SK57, Seal Beach, CA 90740-5600; phone 562-797-1717; website
• You may view this material at the FAA, Airworthiness Products Section, Operational Safety Branch, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call 206-231-3195. It is also available at
Courtney Tuck, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 2200 South 216th Street, Des Moines, WA 98198; phone 206-231-3986; email
The FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend 14 CFR part 39 to supersede AD 2019-22-02, Amendment 39-19781 (84 FR 67854, December 12, 2019) (AD 2019-22-02). AD 2019-22-02 applied to all The Boeing Company Model 747-200B, 747-200C, 747-200F, 747-300, 747-400, 747-400D, 747-400F, 747-8F, and 747-8 series airplanes. The NPRM published in the
The FAA received a comment from the Air Line Pilots Association, International, who supported the NPRM without change.
The FAA received additional comments from United Parcel Service Co. (UPS). The following presents the comments received on the NPRM and the FAA's response to each comment.
United requested that the date on Boeing Special Attention Service Bulletin 747-25-3653, Revision 1, be corrected to read October 19, 2018. UPS commented that table 1 to paragraph (j) in the proposed AD lists Boeing Special Attention Service Bulletin 747-25-3653, Revision 1, with the incorrect date of October 18, 2018.
The FAA agrees that Boeing Service Bulletin 747-25-3653, Revision 1, called out three times in table 1 to paragraph (j) of this AD, should have the revision date of October 19, 2018, not October 18, 2018. The correct date has been reflected in this AD.
UPS requested that all references in table 1 to paragraph (j) in the proposed AD related to IPECO SB 258-25-08 should say “IPECO SB 258-25-08, Issue 4 or later.” UPS noted that in table 1 to paragraph (j) in the proposed AD for IPECO P/N 3A258-0041-01-1 or 3A258-0042-01-1, only Issues 5 and 6 of IPECO SB 258-25-08 are identified for installation. Boeing Service Bulletin 747-25-3644, Revision 1, dated July 17, 2018, also listed the accomplishment of IPECO SB 258-25-08, Issue 4, along with Issues 5 and 6. Issues 4, 5, and 6 of this service bulletin all list the same work steps for accomplishment for the
The FAA agrees with the request and has included in this AD Ipeco SB 258-25-08, Issue 4, dated April 25, 2014, in Table 1 to paragraph (j) of this AD for Ipeco P/N 3A258-0041-01-1 or 3A258-0042-01-1.
UPS stated that paragraph (j) lacks details to ensure the operators understand the intent of table 1 to paragraph (j) in the proposed AD for Service Bulletin 747-25-3644. UPS therefore requested that table 1 to paragraph (j) in the proposed AD state that no further actions are required if the operator has completed either action in the applicable IPECO service bulletin or the performed manual override cable maintenance in accordance with the component maintenance manual.
The FAA disagrees to revise paragraph (j) of this AD. Boeing SB 747-25-3644 Revision 1, dated July 17, 2018, states that if the applicable Ipeco P/N has a serial number identified by the effectivity of the applicable Ipeco service bulletin and the manual override cable maintenance has been completed on the seat in accordance with the Ipeco CMM listed in the table, no further action is required for this seat. The Ipeco service bulletin also state whether the Ipeco service bulletin does not apply to those seats where maintenance logs show that the cables have been inspected, replaced, or adjusted per the applicable CMM. The FAA has not changed this AD as a result of this comment.
UPS requested that the wording “Installation per Boeing Special Attention SB” and “Installation per IPECO SB” for column headers should be titled “Work Accomplished in accordance with . . . .” UPS stated these documents are provided for guidance to the operators on how to comply with a safety issue.
The FAA agrees to change the headings for the first two columns of table 1 to paragraph (j) of this AD to “Actions done in accordance with Boeing Special Attention Service Bulletin” and “Actions done in accordance with Ipeco Service Bulletin.”
The FAA reviewed the relevant data, considered any comments received, and determined that air safety requires adopting this AD as proposed. Accordingly, the FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products. Except for minor editorial changes, and any other changes described previously, this AD is adopted as proposed in the NPRM. None of the changes will increase the economic burden on any operator.
The FAA reviewed Boeing Special Attention Service Bulletin 747-25-3644, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023. This material specifies procedures for identification of the part number, and the serial number if applicable, of the Captain's and First Officer's seats, and applicable on-condition actions. On-condition actions include an inspection of each seat's fore and aft and vertical manual control levers for looseness, installation of serviceable seats, and a seat operational test after any cable adjustment. This material also adds Ipeco seat part numbers 3A258-0041-01-1Z and 3A258-0042-01-1Z.
The FAA also reviewed Boeing Special Attention Service Bulletin 747-25-3653, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023. This material describes procedures for a detailed inspection and repetitive checks of the HMS (including for any Artus part and amendment numbers of the horizontal actuator of the HMS) for the Captain's and First Officer's seats for findings (
This material is reasonably available because the interested parties have access to it through their normal course of business or by the means identified in the
The FAA estimates that this AD affects 162 airplanes of U.S. registry. The FAA estimates the following costs to comply with this AD:
The FAA estimates the following costs to do any necessary on-condition actions that will be required. The FAA has no way of determining the number of aircraft that might need these on-condition actions:
The FAA has received no definitive data that would enable the FAA to provide cost estimates for the optional terminating action for the repetitive checks specified in this AD.
Title 49 of the United States Code specifies the FAA's authority to issue rules on aviation safety. Subtitle I, section 106, describes the authority of the FAA Administrator. Subtitle VII: Aviation Programs, describes in more detail the scope of the Agency's authority.
The FAA is issuing this rulemaking under the authority described in Subtitle VII, Part A, Subpart III, Section 44701: General requirements. Under that section, Congress charges the FAA with promoting safe flight of civil aircraft in air commerce by prescribing regulations for practices, methods, and procedures the Administrator finds necessary for safety in air commerce. This regulation is within the scope of that authority because it addresses an unsafe condition that is likely to exist or develop on products identified in this rulemaking action.
This AD will not have federalism implications under Executive Order 13132. This AD will not have a substantial direct effect on the States, on the relationship between the national government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government.
For the reasons discussed above, I certify that this AD:
(1) Is not a “significant regulatory action” under Executive Order 12866,
(2) Will not affect intrastate aviation in Alaska, and
(3) Will not have a significant economic impact, positive or negative, on a substantial number of small entities under the criteria of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.
Air transportation, Aircraft, Aviation safety, Incorporation by reference, Safety.
Accordingly, under the authority delegated to me by the Administrator, the FAA amends 14 CFR part 39 as follows:
49 U.S.C. 106(g), 40113, 44701.
This airworthiness directive (AD) is effective March 19, 2025.
This AD replaces AD 2019-22-02, Amendment 39-19781 (84 FR 67854, December 12, 2019) (AD 2019-22-02).
This AD applies to all The Boeing Company Model 747-200B, 747-200C, 747-200F, 747-300, 747-400, 747-400D, 747-400F, 747-8F, and 747-8 series airplanes, certificated in any category.
Air Transport Association (ATA) of America Code 25, Equipment/furnishings.
This AD was prompted by reports of uncommanded fore and aft movement of the Captain's and First Officer's seats. The FAA is issuing this AD to address uncommanded fore and aft movement of the Captain's and First Officer's seats. The unsafe condition, if not addressed, could result in an uncommanded fore or aft seat movement during a critical part of a flight, such as takeoff or landing, and could cause a flight control obstruction or unintended flight control input, which could result in the loss of the ability to control the airplane.
Comply with this AD within the compliance times specified, unless already done.
Except as specified by paragraphs (i) and (j) of this AD: At the applicable times specified in the “Compliance” paragraph of Boeing Special Attention Service Bulletin 747-25-3644, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023, do an inspection to determine the part number, and serial number as applicable, of the Captain's and First Officer's seats, and all applicable on-condition actions identified in, and in accordance with the Accomplishment Instructions of Boeing Special Attention Service Bulletin 747-25-3644, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023. A review of airplane maintenance records is acceptable in lieu of this inspection if the part number and serial number of the Captain's and First Officer's seats can be conclusively determined from that review.
Except as specified by paragraph (i) and (j) of this AD: At the applicable times specified in the “Compliance” paragraph of Boeing Special Attention Bulletin 747-25-3653, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023, do all applicable actions identified as “RC” (required for compliance) in, and in accordance with, the Accomplishment Instructions of Boeing Special Attention Bulletin 747-25-3653, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023. Actions identified as terminating action in Boeing Special Attention Service Bulletin 747-25-3653, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023, terminate the applicable required actions of this AD, provided the terminating action is done in accordance with the Accomplishment Instructions of Boeing Special Attention Service Bulletin 747-25-3653, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023.
(1) Where the “Compliance” paragraph of Boeing Special Attention Bulletin 747-25-3653, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023, refers to the original issue date of this bulletin, this AD requires using January 16, 2020 (the effective date of AD 2019-22-02).
(2) Where the “Compliance” paragraph of Boeing Special Attention Bulletin 747-25-3644, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023, refers to 72 months after the original issue date of this service bulletin, this AD requires using 36 months after January 16, 2020 (the effective date of AD 2019-22-02).
(3) Where the “Compliance” paragraph of Boeing Special Attention Bulletin 747-25-3644, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023, refers to the Revision 2 date of this service bulletin, this AD requires using the effective date of the AD.
If the airplane records show that an Ipeco Captain's or First Officer's seat meets all criteria specified in any row in table 1 to paragraph (j) of this AD, the actions specified in paragraphs (g) and (h) of this AD are not required for that seat.
(1) The Manager, AIR-520, Continued Operational Safety Branch, FAA, has the authority to approve AMOCs for this AD, if requested using the procedures found in 14 CFR 39.19. In accordance with 14 CFR 39.19, send your request to your principal inspector or responsible Flight Standards Office, as appropriate. If sending information directly to the manager of the certification office, send it to the attention of the person identified in paragraph (l) of this AD. Information may be emailed to:
(2) Before using any approved AMOC, notify your appropriate principal inspector, or lacking a principal inspector, the manager of the responsible Flight Standards Office.
(3) An AMOC that provides an acceptable level of safety may be used for any repair, modification, or alteration required by this AD if it is approved by The Boeing Company Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) that has been authorized by the Manager, AIR-520, Continued Operational Safety Branch, FAA, to make those findings. To be approved, the repair method, modification deviation, or alteration deviation must meet the certification basis of the airplane, and the approval must specifically refer to this AD.
(4) AMOCs approved for AD 2019-22-02 are approved as AMOCs for the corresponding provisions of Boeing Special Attention Service Bulletin 747-25-3644, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023, and Boeing Special Attention Service Bulletin 747-25-3653, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023, that are required by paragraphs (g) and (h) of this AD.
(5) For service information that contains steps that are labeled as Required for Compliance (RC), the provisions of paragraphs (k)(5)(i) and (ii) of this AD apply.
(i) The steps labeled as RC, including substeps under an RC step and any figures identified in an RC step, must be done to comply with the AD. If a step or substep is labeled “RC Exempt,” then the RC requirement is removed from that step or substep. An AMOC is required for any deviations to RC steps, including substeps and identified figures.
(ii) Steps not labeled as RC may be deviated from using accepted methods in accordance with the operator's maintenance or inspection program without obtaining approval of an AMOC, provided the RC steps, including substeps and identified figures, can still be done as specified, and the airplane can be put back in an airworthy condition.
For more information about this AD, contact Courtney Tuck, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 2200 South 216th Street, Des Moines, WA 98198; phone 206-231-3986; email
(1) The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference (IBR) of the material listed in this paragraph under 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51.
(2) You must use this material as applicable to do the actions required by this AD, unless the AD specifies otherwise.
(i) Boeing Special Attention Service Bulletin 747-25-3644, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023.
(ii) Boeing Special Attention Service Bulletin 747-25-3653, Revision 2, dated January 27, 2023.
(3) For Boeing material identified in this AD, contact Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Attention: Contractual & Data Services (C&DS), 2600 Westminster Boulevard, MC 110-SK57, Seal Beach, CA 90740-5600; phone 562-797-1717; website
(4) You may view this material at the FAA, Airworthiness Products Section, Operational Safety Branch, 2200 South 216th Street, Des Moines, WA. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call 206-231-3195.
(5) You may view this material at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). For information on the availability of this material at NARA, visit
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
Final rule; correction.
The FAA is correcting a final rule that published in the
Effective date 0901 UTC, February 20, 2025. The Director of the Federal Register approves this incorporation by reference action under 1 CFR part 51, subject to the annual revision of FAA Order JO 7400.11 and publication of conforming amendments.
FAA Order JO 7400.11J and subsequent amendments can be viewed online at
Nathan A. Chaffman, Federal Aviation Administration, Western Service Center, Operations Support Group, 2200 S 216th Street, Des Moines, WA 98198; telephone (206) 231-3460.
The FAA published a final rule in the
In FR Doc 2024-29085 at 99702, published in the
That airspace extending upward from the surface to 2,500 feet MSL beginning at lat. 48°57′59″ N, long. 122°18′57″ W, thence counterclockwise along the 4-mile radius of Point in Space A to lat. 49°00′05″ N, long. 122°16′08″ W, thence west along the U.S./Canadian border to lat. 49°00′05″ N, long. 122°45′58″ W, thence clockwise along the 16-mile arc of Point in Space B to lat. 48°57′59″ N, long. 122°47′12″ W, thence east along lat. 48°57′59″ N to the point of beginning, excluding the airspace below 1,500 feet MSL and west of long. 122°33′50″ W, the airspace within the Vancouver International Airport Class C airspace area, and the airspace overlying the territory of Canada.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC), Department of Energy (DOE).
Final rule.
In accordance with the Commission's regulations, the Commission, by its designee, the Executive Director, issues this annual update to the fee schedule in the appendix to the part, which lists per-acre rental fees by county (or other geographic area) for use of Government lands by hydropower licensees.
Raven A. Rodriguez, Financial Management Division Office of the Executive Director, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426; (202) 502-6276;
Section 11.2 of the Commission's regulations provides a method for computing reasonable annual charges for recompensing the United States for the use, occupancy, and enjoyment of its lands by hydropower licensees.
This final rule is effective February 12, 2025. The provisions of 5 U.S.C. 804, regarding congressional review of final rules, do not apply to this final rule because the rule concerns agency procedure and practice and will not substantially affect the rights or obligations of non-agency parties. This final rule merely updates the fee schedule published in the Code of Federal Regulations to reflect scheduled adjustments, as provided for in § 11.2 of the Commission's regulations.
Public lands.
By the Executive Director.
In consideration of the foregoing, the Commission amends part 11, chapter I, title 18, Code of Federal Regulations, as follows.
16 U.S.C. 792-828c; 42 U.S.C. 7101-7352.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).
The FAA proposes to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2019-12-13, which applies to all The Boeing Company Model 757 airplanes. AD 2019-12-13 requires repetitive checks of the aileron trim actuator bearing for free rotation, repetitive detailed inspections of the aileron trim actuator attachment lug for damage and cracking, and applicable on-condition actions. Since the FAA issued AD 2019-12-13, the FAA has determined that a modification must be done to address the unsafe condition. This proposed AD would continue to require the actions in AD 2019-12-13. This proposed AD would also require for certain airplanes changing the lateral control box support assembly and installing an aileron trim actuator bracket, and for certain other airplanes replacing the existing actuator lateral control fitting with an aileron trim actuator bracket, which terminates the repetitive checks and inspections. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.
The FAA must receive comments on this proposed AD by March 31, 2025.
You may send comments, using the procedures found in 14 CFR 11.43 and 11.45, by any of the following methods:
•
•
•
•
• For the material identified in this proposed AD, contact Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Attention: Contractual & Data Services (C&DS), 2600 Westminster Blvd., MC 110-SK57, Seal Beach, CA 90740-5600; telephone 562-797-1717; website
• You may view this material at the FAA, Airworthiness Products Section, Operational Safety Branch, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call 206-231-3195. It is also available at
Katherine Venegas, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA 98198; phone: 562-627-5353; email:
The FAA invites you to send any written relevant data, views, or arguments about this proposal. Send your comments to an address listed under the
Except for Confidential Business Information (CBI) as described in the following paragraph, and other information as described in 14 CFR 11.35, the FAA will post all comments received, without change, to
CBI is commercial or financial information that is both customarily and actually treated as private by its owner. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. 552), CBI is exempt from public disclosure. If your comments responsive to this NPRM contain commercial or financial information that is customarily treated as private, that you actually treat as private, and that is relevant or responsive to this NPRM, it is important that you clearly designate the submitted comments as CBI. Please mark each page of your submission containing CBI as “PROPIN.” The FAA will treat such marked submissions as confidential under the FOIA, and they will not be placed in the public docket of this NPRM. Submissions containing CBI should be sent to Katherine Venegas, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA 98198; phone: 562-627-5353; email:
The FAA issued AD 2019-12-13, Amendment 39-19668 (84 FR 30577, June 27, 2019) (AD 2019-12-13), for all Boeing 757 airplanes. AD 2019-12-13 was prompted by a report of the failure of the aileron trim actuator attachment lug. AD 2019-12-13 requires repetitive checks of the aileron trim actuator bearing for free rotation, repetitive detailed inspections of the aileron trim actuator attachment lug for damage and cracking, and applicable on-condition actions. The agency issued AD 2019-12-13 to address failure of the aileron trim actuator attachment lug and subsequent loss of feel force, wheel centering, and lateral trim, which, if not corrected, could cause over-control of
Since the FAA issued AD 2019-12-13, the FAA has determined that a modification must be done to address the unsafe condition. The preamble to AD 2019-12-13 specifies that the FAA considers that AD “interim action” and that the FAA might consider further rulemaking if a modification is developed, approved, and available. The manufacturer has since developed such a modification, which would terminate the repetitive inspections required by AD 2019-12-13.
The FAA is issuing this NPRM after determining that the unsafe condition described previously is likely to exist or develop on other products of the same type design.
The FAA reviewed Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0159 RB, Revision 1, dated April 29, 2020. This material describes procedures for repetitive checks of the aileron trim actuator bearing for free rotation, repetitive detailed inspections of the aileron trim actuator attachment lug for damage or cracking, and applicable on-condition actions. On-condition actions include high frequency eddy current (HFEC) inspections of the aileron trim actuator attachment lug for cracking, repair, and replacement. This revision only adds references to AD 2019-12-13 and does not add any new actions.
The FAA also reviewed Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0160 RB, dated April 1, 2024. This material specifies procedures for modifying the affected airplanes, which includes for certain airplanes changing the lateral control box support assembly (which includes doing a portable method C penetrant inspection of the machined surface of the lug for any crack, and repair as applicable) and installing an aileron trim actuator bracket, and for certain other airplanes replacing the existing actuator lateral control fitting with an aileron trim actuator bracket. Accomplishment of the modification terminates the repetitive checks and inspections specified in Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0159 RB.
This proposed AD would also require Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0159 RB, dated March 29, 2019, which the Director of the Federal Register approved for incorporation by reference as of July 12, 2019 (84 FR 30577, June 27, 2019).
This material is reasonably available because the interested parties have access to it through their normal course of business or by the means identified in the
This proposed AD would retain all of the requirements of AD 2019-12-13 and would refer to Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0159 RB, Revision 1, dated April 29, 2020, as the appropriate source of service information for accomplishing the retained actions.
This proposed AD would also require doing the actions described in Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0160 RB, dated April 1, 2024, above, except for any differences identified as exceptions in the regulatory text of this proposed AD.
For information on the procedures and compliance times, see this material at
The FAA estimates that this AD, if adopted as proposed, would affect 460 airplanes of U.S. registry. The FAA estimates the following costs to comply with this proposed AD:
The FAA estimates the following costs to do any necessary on-condition actions that would be required based on the results of the proposed inspection. The agency has no way of determining the number of aircraft that might need these on-condition actions:
The FAA has received no definitive data on which to base the cost estimates for the on-condition repair specified in this proposed AD.
Title 49 of the United States Code specifies the FAA's authority to issue
The FAA is issuing this rulemaking under the authority described in Subtitle VII, Part A, Subpart III, Section 44701: General requirements. Under that section, Congress charges the FAA with promoting safe flight of civil aircraft in air commerce by prescribing regulations for practices, methods, and procedures the Administrator finds necessary for safety in air commerce. This regulation is within the scope of that authority because it addresses an unsafe condition that is likely to exist or develop on products identified in this rulemaking action.
The FAA determined that this proposed AD would not have federalism implications under Executive Order 13132. This proposed AD would not have a substantial direct effect on the States, on the relationship between the national government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government.
For the reasons discussed above, I certify this proposed regulation:
(1) Is not a “significant regulatory action” under Executive Order 12866,
(2) Would not affect intrastate aviation in Alaska, and
(3) Would not have a significant economic impact, positive or negative, on a substantial number of small entities under the criteria of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.
Air transportation, Aircraft, Aviation safety, Incorporation by reference, Safety.
Accordingly, under the authority delegated to me by the Administrator, the FAA proposes to amend 14 CFR part 39 as follows:
49 U.S.C. 106(g), 40113, 44701.
The FAA must receive comments on this airworthiness directive (AD) by March 31, 2025.
This AD replaces AD 2019-12-13, Amendment 39-19668 (84 FR 30577, June 27, 2019) (AD 2019-12-13).
This AD applies to all The Boeing Company Model 757-200, -200CB, -200PF, and -300 series airplanes, certificated in any category.
Air Transport Association (ATA) of America Code 27, Flight controls.
This AD was prompted by a report of the failure of the aileron trim actuator attachment lug. The FAA is issuing this AD to address failure of the aileron trim actuator attachment lug and subsequent loss of feel force, wheel centering, and lateral trim. The unsafe condition, if not corrected, could cause over-control of the airplane and subsequent lateral pilot-induced oscillations, which could adversely affect continued safe flight and landing.
Comply with this AD within the compliance times specified, unless already done.
This paragraph restates the requirements of paragraph (g) of AD 2019-12-13, with revised service information. Except as specified by paragraph (h) of this AD: At the applicable times specified in the “Compliance” paragraph of Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0159 RB, Revision 1, dated April 29, 2020, do all applicable actions identified in, and in accordance with, the Accomplishment Instructions of Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0159 RB, dated March 29, 2019, or Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0159 RB, Revision 1, dated April 29, 2020. As of the effective date of this AD, only use Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0159 RB, Revision 1, dated April 29, 2020, for the actions required by this paragraph.
This paragraph restates the requirements of paragraph (h)(2) of AD 2019-12-13, with revised service information. Where Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0159 RB, dated March 29, 2019, and Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0159 RB, Revision 1, dated April 29, 2020, specify contacting Boeing for repair instructions: This AD requires doing the repair using a method approved in accordance with the procedures specified in paragraph (k) of this AD.
Except as specified by paragraph (j) of this AD: At the applicable times specified in the “Compliance” paragraph of Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0160 RB, dated April 1, 2024, do all applicable actions identified in, and in accordance with, the Accomplishment Instructions of Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0160 RB, dated April 1, 2024. Doing the modification required in this paragraph terminates the inspections required by paragraph (g) of this AD.
(1) Where the Compliance Time columns of the tables in the “Compliance” paragraph of Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0160 RB, dated April 1, 2024, refer to the original issue date of Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0160 RB, this AD requires using the effective date of this AD.
(2) Where Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0160 RB, dated April 1, 2024, specifies contacting Boeing for repair instructions: This AD requires doing the repair using a method approved in accordance with the procedures specified in paragraph (k) of this AD.
(1) The Manager, AIR-520, Continued Operational Safety Branch, FAA, has the authority to approve AMOCs for this AD, if requested using the procedures found in 14 CFR 39.19. In accordance with 14 CFR 39.19, send your request to your principal inspector or responsible Flight Standards Office, as appropriate. If sending information directly to the manager of the certification office, send it to the attention of the person identified in paragraph (l)(1) of this AD. Information may be emailed to:
(2) Before using any approved AMOC, notify your appropriate principal inspector, or lacking a principal inspector, the manager of the responsible Flight Standards Office.
(3) An AMOC that provides an acceptable level of safety may be used for any repair, modification, or alteration required by this AD if it is approved by The Boeing Company
(4) AMOCs approved for AD 2019-12-13 are approved as AMOCs for the corresponding provisions of paragraph (g) of this AD.
(1) For more information about this AD, contact Katherine Venegas, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA 98198; phone: 562-627-5353; email:
(2) Material identified in this AD that is not incorporated by reference is available at the address specified in paragraph (m)(5) of this AD.
(1) The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference (IBR) of the material listed in this paragraph under 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51.
(2) You must use this material as applicable to do the actions required by this AD, unless this AD specifies otherwise.
(3) The following material was approved for IBR on [DATE 35 DAYS AFTER PUBLICATION OF THE FINAL RULE].
(i) Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0159 RB, Revision 1, dated April 29, 2020.
(ii) Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0160 RB, dated March 29, 2024.
(4) The following material was approved for IBR on July 12, 2019 (84 FR 30577, June 27, 2019).
(i) Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 757-27A0159 RB, dated March 29, 2019.
(ii) [Reserved]
(5) For the material identified in this AD, contact Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Attention: Contractual & Data Services (C&DS), 2600 Westminster Blvd., MC 110-SK57, Seal Beach, CA 90740-5600; telephone 562-797-1717; website
(6) You may view this material at the FAA, Airworthiness Products Section, Operational Safety Branch, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call 206-231-3195.
(7) You may view this material at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). For information on the availability of this material at NARA, visit
Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board.
Notice.
The Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board received 679 pages of records from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) related to a civil rights cold case incident to which the Review Board assigned the unique identifier 2023-002-001. NARA did not propose any postponements of disclosure. The Department of Justice and the FBI proposed 562 postponements of disclosure. On January 10, 2025, the Review Board approved 267 postponements, requested changes to 25 postponements, and determined that 640 pages in full and 39 pages in part should be publicly disclosed in the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection. The Review Board also voted to approve the four postponements pending from incident 2023-002-007. By issuing this notice, the Review Board complies with section 7(c)(4) of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018 that requires the Review Board to publish in the
Stephannie Oriabure, Chief of Staff, Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board, 1800 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20405, (771) 221-0014,
Lilly del Caribe, Inc. submitted a notification of proposed production activity to the FTZ Board (the Board) for its facility in Carolina, Puerto Rico, within Subzone 7K. The notification conforming to the requirements of the Board's regulations (15 CFR 400.22) was received on January 30, 2025.
Pursuant to 15 CFR 400.14(b), FTZ production activity would be limited to the specific foreign-status material(s)/component(s) and specific finished product(s) described in the submitted notification (summarized below) and subsequently authorized by the Board. The benefits that may stem from conducting production activity under FTZ procedures are explained in the background section of the Board's website—accessible via
The proposed finished product is finished orforglipron dosage form (duty free).
The proposed foreign-status materials/components include orforglipron active ingredient and orforglipron SDD (spray dried dispersion) (duty rate is duty-free or 6.5%). Certain materials/components are subject to duties under Section 1702(a)(1)(B) of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, depending on the country of origin. The applicable section 1702 decision requires subject merchandise to be admitted to FTZs in privileged foreign status (19 CFR 146.41).
Public comment is invited from interested parties. Submissions shall be addressed to the Board's Executive Secretary and sent to:
A copy of the notification will be available for public inspection in the “Online FTZ Information System” section of the Board's website.
For further information, contact Diane Finver at
Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.
The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) is rescinding the administrative reviews of the Agreement Suspending the Antidumping Duty Investigation on Lemon Juice from Argentina (2016 Agreement) for the periods of review (PORs) from October 1, 2022, through September 30, 2023, and from October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024. On January 17, 2025, Commerce finalized an amendment to the 2016 Agreement, rendering the administrative reviews of the pre-existing 2016 Amendment moot.
Applicable February 12, 2025.
Sally C. Gannon or Jill Buckles, Bilateral Agreements Unit, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-0162 or (202) 482-6230, respectively.
On September 10, 2007, Commerce entered into an agreement to suspend the antidumping duty investigation on lemon juice from Argentina.
On October 3, 2023 and October 1, 2024, respectively, Commerce notified interested parties of the opportunity to request administrative reviews of the 2016 Agreement.
On January 17, 2025, Commerce and a representative of the signatory producers/exporters accounting for substantially all imports of lemon juice from Argentina signed a final amendment to the 2016 Agreement.
Commerce has conducted these reviews in accordance with section 751(a)(1)(C) of the Act, which specifies that Commerce shall “review the current status of, and compliance with, any agreement by reason of which an investigation was suspended.” Because Commerce has finalized a new amendment revising the terms and conditions of the 2016 Agreement, the administrative reviews of the pre-existing 2016 Agreement for the PORs from October 1, 2022, through September 30, 2023, and from October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024, are now moot. The reviews pertain to a version of the 2016 Agreement that no longer exists. Accordingly, we are hereby rescinding these reviews.
This notice is issued and published in accordance with sections 751(a)(1) and 777(i)(1) of the Act, and 19 CFR 351.213(d)(4).
Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.
As a result of the determinations by the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that revocation of the antidumping duty (AD) orders on sodium nitrite from the Federal Republic of Germany (Germany) and the People's Republic of China (China) would likely lead to the continuation or recurrence of dumping, and material injury to an industry in the United States, Commerce is publishing a notice of continuation of these AD orders.
Applicable February 5, 2025.
Christopher Doyle, AD/CVD Operations, Office IX, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-5882.
On August 27, 2008, Commerce published in the
On February 5, 2025, the ITC published its determination, pursuant to sections 751(c) and 752(a) of the Act, that revocation of the
The merchandise subject to these orders is sodium nitrite in any form, at any purity level. In addition, the sodium nitrite covered by these orders may or may not contain an anti-caking agent. Examples of names commonly used to reference sodium nitrite are nitrous acid, sodium salt, anti-rust, diazotizing salts, erinitrit, and filmerine. The chemical composition of sodium nitrite is NaNO2 and it is generally classified under subheading 2834.10.1000 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). The American Chemical Society Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) has assigned the name “sodium nitrite” to sodium nitrite. The CAS registry number is 7632-00-0.
While the HTSUS subheading, CAS registry number, and CAS name are provided for convenience and customs purposes, the written description of the scope of these orders is dispositive.
As a result of the determinations by Commerce and the ITC that revocation of the
The effective date of the continuation of the
This notice also serves as a final reminder to parties subject to an APO of their responsibility concerning the return or destruction of proprietary information disclosed under APO in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305(a)(3), which continues to govern business proprietary information in this segment of the proceeding. Timely written notification of the return or destruction of APO materials, or conversion to judicial protective order, is hereby requested. Failure to comply with the regulations and terms of an APO is a violation which is subject to sanction.
These five-year (sunset) reviews and this notice are in accordance with sections 751(c) and 751(d)(2) of the Act, and published in accordance with section 777(i) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.218(f)(4).
Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.
The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) is rescinding the administrative review of the antidumping duty (AD) order on mattresses from Serbia for the period of review (POR) May 1, 2023, through April 30, 2024.
Applicable February 12, 2025.
Tyler Weinhold, AD/CVD Operations, Office VI, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-1121.
On May 2, 2024, Commerce published in the
On July 5, 2024, Commerce initiated an administrative review of the AD order on mattresses from Serbia, covering the period from May 1, 2023, through April 30, 2024, in accordance with section 751(a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), and 19 CFR 351.221(c)(1)(i).
On November 19, 2024, Commerce notified all interested parties of its intent to rescind the administrative review because there were no suspended entries of subject merchandise made by Healthcare Europe, Inc., and invited interested partes to comment.
On July 22, 2024, Commerce tolled certain deadlines in this administrative proceeding by seven days.
Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(d)(1), Commerce will rescind an administrative review, in whole or in part, if the parties that requested a review withdraw the request within 90 days of the date of publication of the notice of initiation. Commerce received a request from Healthcare Europe DOO Ruma for an administrative review of itself. On September 30, 2024, Healthcare Europe DOO Ruma withdrew its request for a review of itself.
Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(d)(3), it is Commerce's practice to rescind an administrative review of an AD order when there are no entries of subject merchandise during the POR for which liquidation is suspended.
As Commerce has proceeded to a final rescission of this administrative review, no cash deposit rates will change. Accordingly, the current cash deposit requirements shall remain in effect until further notice.
Commerce will instruct CBP to assess antidumping duties on all appropriate entries of mattresses from Serbia. Antidumping duties shall be assessed at rates equal to the cash deposit rate of estimated antidumping duties required at the time of entry, or withdrawal from warehouse, for consumption, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.212(c)(1)(i). Commerce intends to issue appropriate assessment instructions to CBP no earlier than 35 days after the date of publication of this rescission notice in the
This notice serves as a final reminder to parties subject to an APO of their responsibility concerning the return or destruction of proprietary information disclosed under APO in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305(a)(3), which continues to govern business proprietary information in this segment of the proceeding. Timely written notification of the return or destruction of the APO materials, or conversion to judicial protective order is hereby requested. Failure to comply with regulations and terms of an APO is a violation, which is subject to sanction.
We are issuing and publishing this notice in accordance with sections 751(a)(1) and 777(i)(1) of the Act, and 19 CFR 351.213(d)(4).
International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.
Notice of an open meeting; postponed.
The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee (REEEAC) in-person meeting scheduled for Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at the Department of Commerce in Washington, DC has been postponed. A rescheduled date and time for the REEEAC meeting will be announced through the
Cora Dickson, Designated Federal Officer, Office of Energy and Environmental Industries, Industry and Analysis, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce at (202) 482-6083; email:
The International Trade Administration (ITA) is giving notice that it is postponing a meeting of the REEEAC. ITA originally published in the
The Secretary of Commerce established the REEEAC pursuant to discretionary authority and in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. 1001
Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.
The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of melamine from India. This investigation covers one mandatory respondent, Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited (Gujarat Fertilizers), and the period (POI) January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023.
Applicable February 12, 2025.
Paul Kebker or Dylan Hill, AD/CVD Operations, Office IV, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-2254 or (202) 482-1197, respectively.
On July 22, 2024, Commerce published in the
Because Commerce aligned the deadline for this final determination with the deadline for the final determination in the less-than-fair-value (LTFV) investigation of melamine from India, the deadline for the final determination is now February 6, 2025.
For a complete description of the events that occurred after Commerce issued the
The product covered by this investigation is melamine from India. For a complete description of the scope of the investigation,
We received no comments from interested parties on the scope of the investigation as it appeared in the
As provided in section 782(i) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), in October 2024, Commerce conducted a verification of the information reported by Gujarat Fertilizers and the Government of India (GOI). As explained in the accompanying Issues and Decision Memorandum, Commerce was not able to verify the information provided by Gujarat Fertilizers due to its lack of cooperation at verification. Commerce was able to complete its verification of the GOI. Commerce used standard verification procedures, including an examination of relevant documents provided at verification, in conducting its verification of the GOI.
We have discussed the subsidy programs under investigation, and addressed the issues raised in interested parties' case and rebuttal briefs in the Issues and Decision Memorandum. For a list of the issues addressed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum,
Commerce conducted this investigation in accordance with section 701 of the Act. For each of the subsidy programs found to be countervailable, Commerce has determined that the program provides a subsidy,
In accordance with sections 705(a)(2), and 776(a) and (b) of the Act, and 19 CFR 351.206,
As noted above, we are now basing Gujarat Fertilizers' countervailable subsidy rate on total AFA. For a discussion of this change,
Section 705(c)(5)(A) of the Act provides that in a final determination, Commerce shall determine an estimated all-others rate for companies not individually examined equal to the weighted average of the estimated countervailable subsidy rates established for exporters and producers individually examined, excluding any zero or
Commerce determined Gujarat Fertilizers' estimated countervailable subsidy rate entirely under section 776 of the Act. Gujarat Fertilizers is the sole producer/exporter individually examined in this investigation and there are no other countervailable subsidy rates on the record. Given these facts, Commerce has determined that a reasonable method for establishing the estimated all-others countervailable subsidy rate is to assign Gujarat Fertilizers' estimated countervailable subsidy rate to all other producers and exporters.
Commerce determines that the following estimated net countervailable subsidy rate exists for the period January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023:
Commerce intends to disclose its calculations and analysis performed to parties to the proceeding within five days of public announcement of this final determination or, if there is no public announcement, within five days of the date of publication of this notice in the
As a result of the
If the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) issues a final affirmative injury determination, Commerce will issue a CVD order, reinstate the suspension of liquidation under section 706(a) of the Act, and require a cash deposit of estimated countervailing duties for entries of subject merchandise in the amounts indicated in the table above. If the ITC determines that material injury, or threat of material injury, does not exist, this investigation will be terminated, and all estimated countervailing duties deposited, or securities posted as a result of the suspension of liquidation will be refunded or cancelled.
In accordance with section 705(d) of the Act, Commerce will notify the ITC of its final affirmative determination that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of melamine from India. As Commerce's final determination is affirmative, in accordance with section 705(b) of the Act, the ITC will determine, within 45 days, whether the domestic industry in the United States is materially injured, or threatened with material injury, by reason of U.S. imports of melamine from India. Commerce is making available to the ITC all non-privileged and non-proprietary information related to this investigation. We will allow the ITC access to all privileged and business proprietary information in our files, provided the ITC confirms that it will not disclose such information, either publicly or under administrative protective order (APO), without the written consent of the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance. If the ITC determines that material injury or threat of material injury does not exist, this proceeding will be terminated and all cash deposits will be refunded.
If the ITC determines that such injury does exist, Commerce will issue a countervailing duty order directing CBP to assess, upon further instruction by Commerce, countervailing duties on all imports of the subject merchandise that are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the effective date of the suspension of liquidation, as discussed above in the “Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation” section.
In the event that the ITC issues a final negative injury determination, this notice will serve as the only reminder to parties subject to the APO of their responsibility concerning the destruction of proprietary information disclosed under APO, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305(a)(3). Timely written notification of the return/destruction of APO materials or conversion to judicial protective order is hereby requested. Failure to comply with the regulations and terms of an APO is a violation which is subject to sanction.
This determination is issued and published pursuant to sections 705(d) and 777(i) of the Act, and 19 CFR 351.210(c).
The merchandise subject to this investigation is melamine (Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) registry number 108-78-01, molecular formula C3 H6 N6). Melamine is also known as 2,4,6-triamino-s-triazine; 1,3,5-Triazine-2,4,6-triamine; Cyanurotriamide; Cyanurotriamine; Cyanuramide; and by various brand names. Melamine is a crystalline powder or granule. All melamine is covered by the scope of this investigation irrespective of purity, particle size, or physical form. Melamine that has been blended with other products is included within this scope when such blends include constituent parts that have been intermingled, but that have not been chemically reacted with each other to produce a different product. For such blends, only the melamine component of the mixture is covered by the scope of this investigation. Melamine that is otherwise subject to this investigation is not excluded when commingled with melamine from sources not subject to this investigation. Only the subject component of such commingled products is covered by the scope of this investigation.
The subject merchandise is provided for in subheading 2933.61.0000 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). Although the HTSUS subheading and CAS registry number are provided for convenience and customs purposes, the written description of the scope is dispositive.
Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.
The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that melamine from India is being, or is likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV). The period of investigation (POI) is January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023.
Applicable February 12, 2025.
Myrna Lobo, AD/CVD Operations, Office VII, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-2371.
On September 24, 2024, Commerce published in the
A summary of the events that occurred since the
Commerce preliminarily determined, in accordance with section 733(e)(1) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), and 19 CFR 351.206, that critical circumstances exist with respect to imports of melamine from India produced and exported by Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited (GSFC). For the final determination, pursuant to sections 735(a)(3)(A) and (B) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.206, we continue to find that critical circumstances exist for this company.
The product covered by this investigation is melamine from India. For a complete description of the scope of this investigation,
We received no comments from interested parties on the scope of the investigation as it appeared in the
As stated in the
All issues raised in the case and rebuttal briefs submitted by interested parties in this investigation are addressed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum. A list of the issues addressed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum is attached as Appendix II to this notice.
As discussed in the
Section 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act provides that the estimated weighted-average dumping margin for all other producers and exporters not individually investigated shall be equal to the weighted average of the estimated weighted-average dumping margins established for exporters and producers individually investigated excluding rates that are zero,
In the
The final estimated weighted-average dumping margins are as follows:
Normally, Commerce will disclose to the parties in a proceeding the calculations performed in connection with a final determination within five days of any public announcement or, if there is no public announcement, within five days of the date of publication of the notice of final determination in the
In accordance with section 735(c)(4) of the Act, we will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to
Pursuant to section 735(c)(1)(B)(ii) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.210(d), where appropriate, Commerce will instruct CBP to require a cash deposit equal to the estimated weighted-average dumping margin or the estimated all-others rate as follows: (1) the cash deposit rate for the respondent listed above will be equal to the company-specific estimated weighted-average dumping margin determined in this final determination; (2) if the exporter is not a respondent identified above, but the producer is, then the cash deposit rate will be equal to the company-specific estimated weighted-average dumping margin established for that producer of the subject merchandise; and (3) the cash deposit rate for all other producers and exporters will be equal to the all-others estimated weighted-average dumping margin. These suspension of liquidation instructions will remain in effect until further notice.
Commerce normally adjusts cash deposits for estimated antidumping duties by the amount of export subsidies in a companion countervailing duty (CVD) proceeding, when CVD provisional measures are in effect. However, provisional measures in the companion CVD proceeding are no longer in effect and suspension of liquidation was discontinued. Therefore, we will instruct CBP to collect cash deposits based upon the estimated weighted-average dumping margin shown in the “Final Determination” section above, unadjusted for CVD export subsidies.
In accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, we will notify the ITC of the final affirmative determination of sales at LTFV. Because Commerce's final determination is affirmative, in accordance with section 735(b)(2) of the Act, the ITC will make its final determination as to whether the domestic industry in the United States is materially injured, or threatened with material injury, by reason of imports or sales (or the likelihood of sales) for importation of melamine from India no later than 45 days after this final determination. If the ITC determines that such injury does not exist, this proceeding will be terminated, and all cash deposits will be refunded, and suspension of liquidation will be lifted. If the ITC determines that material injury, or the threat of material injury, exists, Commerce will issue an antidumping duty order directing CBP to assess, upon further instruction by Commerce, antidumping duties on all imports of the subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the effective date of the suspension of liquidation, as discussed above in the “Suspension of Liquidation” section above.
This notice serves as the only reminder to parties subject to an APO of their responsibility concerning the disposition of proprietary information disclosed under APO in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305(a)(3). Timely written notification of the return or destruction of APO materials or conversion to judicial protective order is hereby requested. Failure to comply with the regulations and terms of an APO is a sanctionable violation.
This determination and this notice are issued and published pursuant to sections 735(d) and 777(i)(1) of the Act, and 19 CFR 351.210(c).
The merchandise subject to this investigation is melamine (Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) registry number 108-78-01, molecular formula C
The subject merchandise is provided for in subheading 2933.61.0000 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). Although the HTSUS subheading and CAS registry number are provided for convenience and customs purposes, the written description of the scope is dispositive.
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
Notice of public meetings.
The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is holding four regional workshops to hear
These meetings will be held between Thursday, February 27, 2025, and Tuesday, March 25, 2025. See
See
Cate O'Keefe, Executive Director, New England Fishery Management Council; telephone: (978) 465-0492.
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The Council is holding three in-person workshops and a webinar to solicit input from the public on their vision for the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery to help inform the development of a 3-5 year strategic plan for managing the scallop fishery. This plan will be used by the Council to develop work schedules and allocate resources needed to make changes to the fishery management plan (FMP). Community and public input are essential to the development of goals and objectives that will be included in the Council's strategic plan for the scallop fishery.
Although non-emergency issues not contained on the agenda may come before this Council for discussion, those issues may not be the subject of formal action during these meetings. Council action will be restricted to those issues specifically listed in this notice and any issues arising after publication of this notice that require emergency action under section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, provided the public has been notified of the Council's intent to take final action to address the emergency. The public also should be aware that the meeting will be recorded. Consistent with 16 U.S.C. 1852, a copy of the recording is available upon request.
These meetings are physically accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids should be directed to Cate O'Keefe, Executive Director, at 978-465-0492, at least 5 days prior to the meeting date.
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
Notice; public meeting.
The Western Pacific Stock Assessment Review (WPSAR) Steering Committee will convene a public meeting to discuss and approve the 5-year calendar for stock assessments, and to address any other concerns related to the WPSAR process.
The Steering Committee will meet from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday, February 24, 2025.
The meeting will be open to the public and will be held as a hybrid meeting for members and the public, with a remote participation option available via Webex. In-person participation will be hosted at the Council office, 1164 Bishop Street, Suite 1400, Honolulu, HI 96813. Specific information on joining the meeting, connecting to the web conference and providing oral public comments will be posted on the Council website at
Mark Fitchett, (808) 522-8141, or
The WPSAR Steering Committee consists of the Executive Director of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, the Science Director of the NMFS Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, and the Regional Administrator of the NMFS Pacific Islands Regional Office. You may read more about WPSAR at
The public will have an opportunity to comment during the meeting. The agenda order may change. The meeting will run as late as necessary to complete scheduled business.
The meeting is accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids should be directed to Kitty M. Simonds, (808) 522-8220 (voice) or (808) 522-8226 (fax), at least 5 days prior to the meeting date.
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
Notice of public meetings.
The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold its Mariana Archipelago Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Advisory Panel (AP), CNMI Regional Ecosystem Advisory Committee (REAC),
The meetings will be held between February 26, 2025 and March 4, 2025. For specific times and agendas, see
The Council will hold its Mariana Archipelago FEP CNMI AP, CNMI REAC, FIAC, Mariana Archipelago FEP Guam AP, and the Guam REAC meetings in a hybrid format with in-person and remote participation (Webex) options available for the members and the public. The FIAC meeting will be held in a virtual format with remote participation (Webex) options available for the members and the public.
• In person attendance for the CNMI REAC and public will be hosted at the CNMI Crowne Place Hibiscus Hall, Coral Tree Ave., Garapan, Saipan, 96950.
• In-person attendance for the Mariana Archipelago FEP CNMI AP and public will be hosted at CNMI Crowne Place Hibiscus Hall, Coral Tree Ave., Garapan, Saipan, 96950.
• In-person attendance for Guam REAC and public will be hosted at the Guam Hilton Micronesian Room, 202 Hilton Road, Tumon Bay, Guam, 96913.
• In-person attendance for the Mariana Archipelago FEP Guam AP and public will be hosted at Guam Hilton Chuchuko Room, 202 Hilton Road, Tumon Bay, Guam, 96913.
Instructions for connecting to the web conference and providing oral public comments will be posted on the Council website at
Kitty M. Simonds, Executive Director, Western Pacific Fishery Management Council; phone: (808) 522-8220.
The Mariana Archipelago FEP CNMI AP will meet on Wednesday, February 26, from 6:30 p.m.to 9 p.m. (Chamorro Standard Time [ChST]), the CNMI REAC will meet on Thursday, February 27, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. (ChST), the FIAC will meet on Thursday, February 27, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. (HST), the Mariana Archipelago FEP Guam AP will meet on Monday, March 3, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. (ChST), and the Guam REAC will meet on Tuesday, March 4, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon (ChST).
Public Comment periods will be provided in the agendas. The order in which agenda items are addressed may change. The meetings will run as late as necessary to complete scheduled business.
These meetings are accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids should be directed to Kitty M. Simonds, (808) 522-8220 (voice) or (808) 522-8226 (fax), at least 5 days prior to the meeting date.
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
Notice of public meetings.
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold meetings of the following: Snapper Grouper Commercial Sub-Committee; Habitat & Ecosystem Committee; Joint Habitat & Ecosystem and Shrimp Committee; Snapper Grouper Committee, Mackerel Cobia Committee, and the Southeast Data, Assessment, and Review (SEDAR) Committee. The meeting week will also include a formal public comment session and meetings of the Full Council.
The Council meeting will be held from 9 a.m. on Monday, March 3, 2025, until 12 p.m. on Friday, March 7, 2025.
The meeting will also be available via webinar. See
Kim Iverson, Public Information Officer, SAFMC; phone: (843) 302-8440 or toll free: (866) SAFMC-10; fax: (843) 769-4520; email:
Meeting information, including agendas, overviews, and briefing book materials will be posted on the Council's website at:
The items of discussion in the individual meeting agendas are as follows:
The Snapper Grouper Commercial Sub-Committee will review commercial data, discuss issues to be addressed in the commercial snapper grouper fishery and prioritization, and discuss next steps and timelines.
The Council will meet in closed session to receive a litigation brief if needed, review the advisory panel policy as it relates to background checks for applicants, consider recommendations from the Law Enforcement Advisory Panel (AP), and propose policy modifications as needed. The Council will also consider appointments to the SEDAR 90 (South Atlantic Red Snapper) stock assessment data workshop, liaison appointments to the Shrimp AP, and other appointments as needed.
The Council will receive a litigation brief and reports from the Council's Law Enforcement Advisory Panel on items not included in the March agenda, Council liaisons, state agencies, NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office (SERO), and NOAA Fisheries Southeast Science Center. The Council will also receive a presentation on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council's Recreational Reform Initiative. The Council will review the Southeast For-Hire Integrated Electronic Reporting (SEFHIER) Improvement Amendment currently under development. The Amendment review will include recommendations from the Council's For-Hire Reporting Advisory Panel (AP), Law Enforcement AP, and a presentation from NOAA Fisheries SERO. The Council will consider approving the amendment for public scoping.
Council members are scheduled to receive a presentation on the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Fisheries Protocol, discuss topics for the Dolphin Wahoo AP Spring 2025 meeting, and Climate Projects including Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) projects and the Climate and Ecosystem Fisheries Initiative.
The Committee will receive a report from the Habitat and Ecosystem AP, a 2024 Habitat Report, an update on the Essential Fish Habitat Mapper, and discuss topics for the July 2025 Habitat and Ecosystem AP meeting.
The Committees will receive an overview of a draft comprehensive
The Committee will receive an Exempted Fishing Permit briefing (if needed), an update on the status of amendments under review from NOAA Fisheries, discuss possible revisions to the Snapper Grouper Management Complex management unit, and amendment development and timing for management measures for golden tilefish. The Committee will receive a presentation on Maximum Sustainable Yield Proxies and an update on a Secretarial Amendment to end overfishing of red snapper in the South Atlantic, both from NOAA Fisheries.
The Committee will review public scoping comments on Amendment 56 to the Snapper Grouper Fishery Management Plan addressing management measures for black sea bass, draft Amendment 46 addressing Recreational Permit and Education Requirements (Snapper Grouper Amendment 46), receive a report from the Snapper Grouper Commercial Sub-Committee regarding amendment development and timing, and discuss topics for the Spring meeting of the Snapper Grouper AP.
The Committee will receive an update on the 4(d) rule on the giant manta ray (if needed), a report on Mackerel Port Meetings conducted in 2024-25, and discuss topics for the Spring meeting of the Mackerel Cobia AP.
The Committee will receive a report from the SEDAR Steering Committee, review Statements of Work, continue discussion of identifying Key Stocks, and consider changes to the Committee name and responsibilities to better reflect what this Committee does.
Council will receive Committee reports, review the Council Workplan and upcoming meetings, and discuss any other business as needed.
Documents regarding these issues are available from the Council office (see
Although non-emergency issues not contained in this agenda may come before this group for discussion, those issues may not be the subject of formal action during these meetings. Action will be restricted to those issues specifically identified in this notice and any issues arising after publication of this notice that require emergency action under section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, provided the public has been notified of the Council's intent to take final action to address the emergency.
These meetings are physically accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for auxiliary aids should be directed to the Council office (see
Office of Coast Survey, National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce.
Notice of public meeting; request for comment.
This serves as the notice of a public meeting for the NOAA Hydrographic Services Review Panel (HSRP) Federal Advisory Committee from March 4th through March 5th, 2025, in St. Petersburg, FL. The agenda for the HSRP public meeting will be posted in advance of the meeting on the HSRP website. Individuals or groups who would like to comment on NOAA navigation, observation, and positioning services topics are encouraged to submit public comments in advance of the HSRP public meeting via email, during the public meeting in person, or during the public meeting via the “Questions” function in the meeting webinar if joining the public meeting virtually.
Members of the public may attend the NOAA HSRP public meeting in person or virtually on the following dates and at the following times:
Please visit the HSRP online landing page at
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Amanda Phelps, Acting NOAA HSRP Program Manager, email:
The Hydrographic Services Improvement Act of 1998, as amended (HSIA; 33 U.S.C. 892
The HSRP invites NOAA stakeholder feedback and welcomes public comments in advance of and during the upcoming HSRP public meeting on the
The HSRP members will focus on the issues relevant to NOAA's navigation, observations, and positioning services, and the value these services bring the Nation, and invite suggestions from stakeholders and partners for improvements to these services. This suite of NOAA services supports safe and efficient navigation, the Blue Economy, resilient coasts and communities, and the nationwide positioning information infrastructure to support America's climate needs and commerce. Specifically, the HSRP will consider:
• National Ocean Service programs' recent activities, such as updates to the National Spatial Reference System, datums, national ocean and coastal mapping goals, hydrographic surveying, nautical charting, uncrewed systems, coastal remote sensing and bathymetric lidar, photogrammetry, positioning, sea level rise, and water levels in support of “seamless data.”
• The status of NOAA's navigation services in the context of recent legislation.
• Measuring, monitoring, and mitigating flooding and sea level change and the contribution of NOAA's critical foundational geospatial data to projects.
• NOAA navigation data, products, and services that enable further economic growth and impact safe navigation.
• Other topics related to NOAA programs and activities, such as bathymetric and coastal/ocean modeling, tide and current observations, resilience and coastal data and information systems to support planning for climate change in ports and coastal communities, flooding/inundation, contributions to the Blue Economy, Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®) sensor enhancements and expansion, Precision Marine Navigation, the transition from raster paper charts to Electronic Navigational Charts, geodetic observations, gravity modeling, data stewardship, education and training to sustain the workforce necessary for NOAA navigation services missions, and scientific mapping and technology research projects tied to cooperative agreements between NOAA and other partners.
This public meeting is accessible to people with disabilities and there will be sign language interpretation and captioning services. Please direct requests for other auxiliary aids to
Department of the Army, DoD.
Notice of open Federal Advisory Committee meeting: in person.
Under the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972, the Government in the Sunshine Act of 1976, the Department of Defense announces that the following Federal advisory committee meeting will take place.
The meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. Members of the public wishing to attend the meeting will be required to show a government photo ID upon entering in order to gain access to the meeting location. All members of the public are subject to security screening.
The meeting will be held in the Caucus Room, Cannon House Office Building, 27 Independence Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20003.
Mr. David Nagle, the Designated Federal Officer for the committee, in writing at: Secretary of the General Staff, United States Military Academy ATTN: David Nagle, 646 Swift Road, West Point, NY 10996; by email at:
The committee meeting is being held under the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 (5 U.S.C., appendix, as amended), the Government in the Sunshine Act of 1976 (5 U.S.C. 552b, as amended), and 41 CFR 102-3.150. The USMA BoV provides independent advice and recommendations to the President of the United States on matters related to morale, discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods, and any other matters relating to the Academy that the Board decides to consider.
Pursuant to 41 CFR 102-3.140d, the committee is not obligated to allow a member of the public to speak or otherwise address the committee during the meeting. However, the committee Designated Federal Official and Chairperson may choose to invite certain submitters to present their comments verbally during the open portion of this meeting or at a future meeting. The Designated Federal Officer, in consultation with the committee Chairperson, may allot a specific amount of time for submitters to present their comments verbally.
On November 27, 2024, NOW NE005 LLC, filed an application for a preliminary permit, pursuant to section 4(f) of the Federal Power Act (FPA), proposing to study the feasibility of the Champlain Canal-Hudson River-Lock and Dam C1 Hydroelectric Project (Lock and Dam C1 Project) on the Champlain Canal, Hudson River in Saratoga and Rensselaer Counties, New York. The sole purpose of a preliminary permit, if issued, is to grant the permit holder priority to file a license application during the permit term. A preliminary permit does not authorize the permit holder to perform any land-disturbing activities or otherwise enter upon lands or waters owned by others without the owners' express permission.
The proposed Lock and Dam C1 Project would consist of the following: (1) an existing 1,025-foot-long and 15-foot-high ogee-shaped concrete gravity dam, with a 356-foot-long tainter-gated section; (2) an existing impoundment having a surface area of 400 acres and a storage capacity of 5,000 acre-feet at a water surface elevation of 28.3 feet National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929; (3) an existing 45-foot-wide by 338-foot-long lock; (4) a new 97-foot-wide and 170-foot-long reinforced concrete powerhouse with two new identical turbine-generator units with an installed capacity of 5,100 kilowatts each; (5) a new substation, 75 feet by 60 feet; (6) a new 34.5-kilovolt, approximately 1.9-mile-long transmission line; and (7) appurtenant facilities. The proposed project would have an annual generation of 39.79 gigawatt-hours.
The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file comments, motions to intervene, notices of intent, and competing applications using the Commission's eFiling system at
The Commission's Office of Public Participation (OPP) supports meaningful public engagement and participation in Commission proceedings. OPP can help members of the public, including landowners, community organizations, Tribal members and others, access publicly available information and navigate Commission processes. For public inquiries and assistance with making filings such as interventions, comments, or requests for rehearing, the public is encouraged to contact OPP at (202) 502-6595 or
More information about this project, including a copy of the application, can be viewed or printed on the “eLibrary” link of the Commission's website at
Take notice that the Commission received the following electric rate filings:
The filings are accessible in the Commission's eLibrary system (
Any person desiring to intervene, to protest, or to answer a complaint in any of the above proceedings must file in accordance with Rules 211, 214, or 206 of the Commission's Regulations (18 CFR 385.211, 385.214, or 385.206) on or before 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on the specified comment date. Protests may be considered, but intervention is necessary to become a party to the proceeding.
eFiling is encouraged. More detailed information relating to filing requirements, interventions, protests, service, and qualifying facilities filings can be found at:
The Commission's Office of Public Participation (OPP) supports meaningful public engagement and participation in Commission proceedings. OPP can help members of the public, including landowners, community organizations, Tribal members and others, access publicly available information and navigate Commission processes. For public inquiries and assistance with making filings such as interventions, comments, or requests for rehearing, the public is encouraged to contact OPP at (202) 502-6595 or
Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection.
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k. Pursuant to section 4.32(b)(7) of 18 CFR of the Commission's regulations, if any resource agency, Indian Tribe, or person believes that an additional scientific study should be conducted in order to form an adequate factual basis for a complete analysis of the application on its merit, the resource agency, Indian Tribe, or person must file a request for a study with the Commission not later than 60 days from the date of filing of the application, and serve a copy of the request on the applicant.
l.
The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file additional study requests and requests for cooperating agency status using the Commission's eFiling system at
m. The application is not ready for environmental analysis at this time.
n. The proposed RC Byrd Project would utilize the existing Corps' Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam and would consist of the following new facilities: (1) two 142.5-foot-long, 110-foot-wide powerhouses each containing three 4.75-kilowatt turbine-generator units to be constructed within two decommissioned locks on the east side of the Corps' Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam; (2) two intake channels; (3) two tailrace channels; (4) a 250-foot-long underground conduit carrying generator leads from the powerhouses to a step-up transformer contained in a substation; (5) a 69-kilovolt, 2.5-mile-long aboveground transmission line to the Apple Grove Substation, where project power would connect with the electrical grid; and (6) appurtenant facilities.
The proposed RC Byrd Project would operate in a run-of-release mode, whereby outflow from the project would approximate inflow made available for generation by the Corps. The RC Byrd Project would be projected to have an annual energy generation of about 165,169 megawatt-hours.
o. A copy of the application can be viewed on the Commission's website at
You may also register online at
The Commission's Office of Public Participation (OPP) supports meaningful public engagement and participation in Commission proceedings. OPP can help members of the public, including landowners, community organizations, Tribal members, and others, access publicly available information and navigate Commission processes. For public inquiries and assistance with making filings such as interventions, comments, or requests for rehearing, the public is encouraged to contact OPP at (202) 502-6595 or
p.
Take notice that the Commission received the following electric rate filings:
The filings are accessible in the Commission's eLibrary system (
Any person desiring to intervene, to protest, or to answer a complaint in any of the above proceedings must file in accordance with Rules 211, 214, or 206 of the Commission's Regulations (18 CFR 385.211, 385.214, or 385.206) on or before 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on the specified comment date. Protests may be considered, but intervention is necessary to become a party to the proceeding.
eFiling is encouraged. More detailed information relating to filing requirements, interventions, protests, service, and qualifying facilities filings can be found at:
The Commission's Office of Public Participation (OPP) supports meaningful public engagement and participation in Commission proceedings. OPP can help
Take notice that on February 4, 2025, Western Area Power Administration submitted a tariff filing: Formula Rate for Western Area Power Administration—Rate Order No. WAPA-221 to be effective 4/1/2025.
Any person desiring to intervene or to protest this filing must file in accordance with Rules 211 and 214 of the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure (18 CFR 385.211, 385.214). Protests will be considered by the Commission in determining the appropriate action to be taken but will not serve to make protestants parties to the proceeding. Any person wishing to become a party must file a notice of intervention or motion to intervene, as appropriate. Such notices, motions, or protests must be filed on or before the comment date. On or before the comment date, it is not necessary to serve motions to intervene or protests on persons other than the Applicant.
The Commission strongly encourages electronic filings of comments, protests and interventions in lieu of paper using the “eFiling” link at
The Commission's Office of Public Participation (OPP) supports meaningful public engagement and participation in Commission proceedings. OPP can help members of the public, including landowners, community organizations, Tribal members and others, access publicly available information and navigate Commission processes. For public inquiries and assistance with making filings such as interventions, comments, or requests for rehearing, the public is encouraged to contact OPP at (202) 502-6595 or
Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection:
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b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
k.
The Commission strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file comments, motions to intervene, and protests using the Commission's eFiling system at
The Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure require all intervenors filing documents with the Commission to serve a copy of that document on each person whose name appears on the official service list for the project. Further, if an intervenor files comments or documents with the Commission relating to the merits of an issue that may affect the responsibilities of a particular resource agency, they must also serve a copy of the document on that resource agency.
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n. Individuals desiring to be included on the Commission's mailing list should so indicate by writing to the Secretary of the Commission.
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q. The Commission's Office of Public Participation (OPP) supports meaningful public engagement and participation in Commission proceedings. OPP can help members of the public, including landowners, community organizations, Tribal members and others, access publicly available information and navigate Commission processes. For public inquiries and assistance with making filings such as interventions, comments, or requests for rehearing, the public is encouraged to contact OPP at (202) 502-6595 or
Take notice that the Commission received the following electric corporate filings:
Take notice that the Commission received the following electric rate filings:
The filings are accessible in the Commission's eLibrary system (
Any person desiring to intervene, to protest, or to answer a complaint in any of the above proceedings must file in accordance with Rules 211, 214, or 206 of the Commission's Regulations (18 CFR 385.211, 385.214, or 385.206) on or before 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on the specified comment date. Protests may be considered, but intervention is necessary to become a party to the proceeding.
eFiling is encouraged. More detailed information relating to filing requirements, interventions, protests, service, and qualifying facilities filings can be found at:
The Commission's Office of Public Participation (OPP) supports meaningful public engagement and participation in Commission proceedings. OPP can help members of the public, including landowners, community organizations, Tribal members and others, access publicly available information and navigate Commission processes. For public inquiries and assistance with making filings such as interventions, comments, or requests for rehearing, the public is encouraged to contact OPP at (202) 502-6595 or
Take notice that the Commission received the following electric corporate filings:
Take notice that the Commission received the following exempt wholesale generator filings:
Take notice that the Commission received the following electric rate filings:
The filings are accessible in the Commission's eLibrary system (
Any person desiring to intervene, to protest, or to answer a complaint in any of the above proceedings must file in accordance with Rules 211, 214, or 206 of the Commission's Regulations (18 CFR 385.211, 385.214, or 385.206) on or before 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on the specified comment date. Protests may be considered, but intervention is necessary to become a party to the proceeding.
eFiling is encouraged. More detailed information relating to filing requirements, interventions, protests, service, and qualifying facilities filings can be found at:
The Commission's Office of Public Participation (OPP) supports meaningful public engagement and participation in Commission proceedings. OPP can help members of the public, including landowners, community organizations, Tribal members and others, access publicly available information and navigate Commission processes. For public inquiries and assistance with making filings such as interventions, comments, or requests for rehearing, the public is encouraged to contact OPP at (202) 502-6595 or
Appraisal Subcommittee of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
Notice of special closed meeting.
The ASC convened a Special Closed Meeting to discuss State Compliance Reviews and a personnel matter pursuant to section 1104(b) of Title XI (12 U.S.C. 3333(b)). No action was taken by the ASC.
The notificants listed below have applied under the Change in Bank Control Act (Act) (12 U.S.C. 1817(j)) and § 225.41 of the Board's Regulation Y (12 CFR 225.41) to acquire shares of a bank or bank holding company. The factors that are considered in acting on the applications are set forth in paragraph 7 of the Act (12 U.S.C. 1817(j)(7)).
The public portions of the applications listed below, as well as other related filings required by the Board, if any, are available for immediate inspection at the Federal Reserve Bank(s) indicated below and at the offices of the Board of Governors. This information may also be obtained on an expedited basis, upon request, by contacting the appropriate Federal Reserve Bank and from the Board's Freedom of Information Office at
Comments received are subject to public disclosure. In general, comments received will be made available without change and will not be modified to remove personal or business information including confidential, contact, or other identifying information. Comments should not include any information such as confidential information that would not be appropriate for public disclosure.
Comments regarding each of these applications must be received at the Reserve Bank indicated or the offices of the Board of Governors, Ann E. Misback, Secretary of the Board, 20th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20551-0001, not later than February 27, 2025.
1.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security.
Amended notice.
In order to effectuate the President's February 1, 2025 Executive order “Imposing Duties to Address the Synthetic Opioid Supply Chain in the People's Republic of China,” as amended by the President's February 5, 2025 Executive order “Amendment to Duties Addressing the Synthetic Opioid Supply Chain in the People's Republic of China,” which imposed specified rates of duty on imports of articles that are products of the People's Republic of China (PRC or China), the Secretary of Homeland Security is amending its February 5, 2025 notice in the
The duties set out in the Annex to this document are effective with respect to products of the PRC that are entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on February 5, 2025.
Brandon Lord, Executive Director, Trade Policy and Programs, Office of Trade, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, (202) 325-6432 or by email at
On January 20, 2025, the President declared a national emergency with respect to the grave threat to the United States posed by the influx of illegal aliens and drugs into the United States in Proclamation 10886 (Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border) (90 FR 8327 (January 29, 2025)).
On February 1, 2025, the President expanded the scope of the national emergency declared in that proclamation to cover the failure of the People's Republic of China (PRC or China) government to arrest, seize, detain, or otherwise intercept, chemical precursor suppliers, money launderers, other transnational criminal organizations, criminals at large, and drugs. In addition, the President determined that this failure to act on the part of the PRC constitutes an unusual
On February 5, 2025, the Secretary of Homeland Security issued a notice in the
To effectuate the changes made by the February 5, 2025 Executive order, DHS is republishing its China Duties Notice in its entirety with changes to reflect both Executive orders.
The February 1, 2025 Executive order directed the Secretary of Homeland Security, to determine and implement the necessary modifications to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), consistent with law, to effectuate the Executive order.
In order to implement the rates of duty imposed by the Executive order, effective on 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on February 4, 2025, subchapter III of chapter 99 of the HTSUS is modified by the Annex to this notice.
Articles that are the products of China, which hereinafter will include products of Hong Kong in accordance with Executive Order 13936 on Hong Kong Normalization (
Imported products of China that are encompassed by 50 U.S.C. 1702(b) will not be subject to the additional ad valorem duty provided for in new HTSUS heading 9903.01.20, but such qualifying products, other than products for personal use included in accompanied baggage of persons arriving in the United States, must be declared and entered under new HTSUS heading 9903.01.21 or new HTSUS heading 9903.01.22. Specifically, new HTSUS heading 9903.01.21 covers products encompassed by 50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2) and new HTSUS heading 9903.01.22 covers products encompassed by 50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(3).
The additional ad valorem duty provided for in new HTSUS heading 9903.01.20 applies in addition to all other applicable duties, taxes, fees, exactions, and charges.
Further, pursuant to the February 5, 2025 Executive order, the administrative exemption from duty and certain taxes at 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(C)—known as the
As of February 10, 2025, there will be no retroactive application of these changes for any shipments that would have otherwise qualified for de minimis treatment based on the February 5, 2025 Executive order “Amendment to Duties Addressing the Synthetic Opioid Supply Chain in the People's Republic of China.”
Products of China that are eligible for temporary duty exemptions or reductions under subchapter II to chapter 99 shall be subject to the additional ad valorem rate of duty imposed by heading 9903.01.20.
The additional duties imposed by heading 9903.01.20 shall not apply to goods for which entry is properly claimed under a provision of chapter 98 of the tariff schedule pursuant to applicable regulations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), and whenever CBP agrees that entry under such a provision is appropriate, except for goods entered under heading 9802.00.80; and subheadings 9802.00.40, 9802.00.50, and 9802.00.60. For subheadings 9802.00.40, 9802.00.50, and 9802.00.60, the additional duties apply to the value of repairs, alterations, or processing performed (in the PRC), as described in the applicable subheading. For heading 9802.00.80, the additional duties apply to the value of the article assembled abroad (in the PRC), less the cost or value of such products of the United States, as described.
Articles that are products of the PRC, excluding those encompassed by 50 U.S.C. 1702(b), except those that are eligible for admission to a foreign trade zone under “domestic status” as defined in 19 CFR 146.43, and are admitted into a United States foreign trade zone on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on February 4, 2025, must be admitted as “privileged foreign status” as defined in 19 CFR 146.41. Such articles will be subject, upon entry for consumption, to the duties imposed by the Executive order and the rates of duty related to the classification under the applicable HTSUS subheading in effect at the time of admission into the United States foreign trade zone.
No drawback shall be available with respect to the additional duties imposed pursuant to the Executive order.
Effective with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on February 5, 2025, subchapter III of chapter 99 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) is modified:
1. by inserting the following new heading 9903.01.20 in numerical sequence, with the material in the new heading inserted in the columns of the HTSUS labeled “Heading/Subheading”, “Article Description”, “Rates of Duty 1-General”, “Rates of Duty 1-Special” and “Rates of Duty 2”, respectively:
2. by inserting the following new heading 9903.01.21 in numerical sequence, with the material in the new heading inserted in the columns of the HTSUS labeled “Heading/Subheading”, “Article Description”, “Rates of Duty 1-General”, “Rates of Duty 1-Special” and “Rates of Duty 2”, respectively:
3. by inserting the following new heading 9903.01.22 in numerical sequence, with the material in the new heading inserted in the columns of the HTSUS labeled “Heading/Subheading”, “Article Description”, “Rates of Duty 1-General”, “Rates of Duty 1-Special” and “Rates of Duty 2”, respectively:
4. by inserting the following new heading 9903.01.23 in numerical sequence, with the material in the new heading inserted in the columns of the HTSUS labeled “Heading/Subheading”, “Article Description”, “Rates of Duty 1-General”, “Rates of Duty 1-Special” and “Rates of Duty 2”, respectively:
5. by inserting the following new U.S. note 2(s) to subchapter III of chapter 99 of the HTSUS in numerical sequence:
“2. (s) For the purposes of heading 9903.01.20, products of China and Hong Kong, other than products described in heading 9903.01.21, heading 9903.01.22, heading 9903.01.23, and other than products for personal use included in accompanied baggage of persons arriving in the United States, shall be subject to an additional 10%
The additional duties imposed by heading 9903.01.20 shall not apply to goods for which entry is properly claimed under a provision of chapter 98 of the tariff schedule pursuant to applicable regulations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), and whenever CBP agrees that entry under such a provision is appropriate, except for goods entered under heading 9802.00.80; and subheadings 9802.00.40, 9802.00.50, and 9802.00.60. For subheadings 9802.00.40, 9802.00.50, and 9802.00.60, the additional duties apply to the value of repairs, alterations, or processing performed (in China and Hong Kong), as described in the applicable subheading. For heading 9802.00.80, the additional duties apply to the value of the article assembled abroad (in China and Hong Kong), less the cost or value of such products of the United States, as described.
Products of China and Hong Kong that are provided for in heading 9903.01.20 shall continue to be subject to antidumping, countervailing, or other duties, taxes, fees, exactions and charges that apply to such products, as well as to the additional
Products of China and Hong Kong that are provided for in heading 9903.01.20 and that are otherwise eligible for the administrative exemption from duty and certain taxes at 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(C)—known as “
(t) Heading 9903.01.21 covers only products of China and Hong Kong, that are donations, by persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, of articles, such as food, clothing, and medicine, intended to be used to relieve human suffering, except to the extent that the President determines that such donations (A) would seriously impair his ability to deal with any national emergency declared under section 1701 of title 19 of the U.S. Code, (B) are in response to coercion against the proposed recipient or donor, or (C) would endanger Armed Forces of the United States which are engaged in hostilities or are in a situation where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances.”
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.
Notice.
This notice publishes the Presidential Memorandum titled “Federal Recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.”
The Presidential memorandum was issued on January 23, 2025.
Oliver Whaley, Director, Office of Regulatory Affairs and Collaborative Action, Office of the Assistant Secretary—Indian Affairs, (202) 738-6065.
On January 23, 2025, the President of the United States issued a Presidential memorandum (PM) to the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) titled “Federal Recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina,” which directs the Secretary to review “all applicable authorities regarding the recognition or acknowledgement of Indian tribes” and, in consultation with the leadership of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, “submit to the President a plan to assist the Lumbee Tribe in obtaining full Federal recognition through legislation or other available mechanisms, including the right to receive full Federal benefits” within 90 days of the date of the PM. The PM further authorizes and directs the Secretary to publish the PM in the
Section 1. Purpose and Policy. The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, known as the People of the Dark Water, have a long and storied history. The tribe's members were descendants of several tribal nations from the Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Siouan language families, including the Hatteras, the Tuscarora, and the Cheraw. The waters of the Lumbee River and lands that surround it have protected and provided for the Lumbee people for centuries despite war, disease, and many other perils.
In 1885, the State of North Carolina recognized the Lumbee people as an Indian tribe. 1885 N.C. Sess. Laws 92. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Lumbee Act (Pub. L. 84-570, 70 Stat. 254), which recognized the Lumbee as the Lumbee Indians of North Carolina but denied the Lumbee Indians the Federal benefits associated with such recognition. Today, according to the State of North Carolina, the Lumbee Tribe consists of more than 55,000 members, making it the largest tribe east of the Mississippi River and the ninth-largest tribe in the Nation.
In 2024, the United States House of Representatives passed, by a vote of 311-96, the Lumbee Fairness Act (H.R. 1101), which would grant to the Lumbee Tribe full Federal recognition, but this legislation was not considered by the United States Senate before the end of the 118th Congress. Similar legislation has passed the House of Representatives several times.
Considering the Lumbee Tribe's historical and modern significance, it is the policy of the United States to support the full Federal recognition, including the authority to receive full Federal benefits, of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.
Sec. 2. Directive for Recognition Plan. (a) Within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, the Secretary of the Interior shall review all applicable authorities regarding the recognition or acknowledgement of Indian tribes and, in consultation with the leadership of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, shall submit to the President a plan to assist the Lumbee Tribe in obtaining full Federal recognition through legislation or other available mechanisms, including the right to receive full Federal benefits.
(b) The plan shall include consideration and analysis of each potential legal pathway to effectuate the full Federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe, including through an act of Congress, judicial action, or the Procedures for Federal Acknowledgement of Indian Tribes set forth in 25 CFR part 83.
(c) The Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the
United States International Trade Commission.
Notice.
The Commission hereby gives notice of the scheduling of full reviews pursuant to the Tariff Act of 1930 (“the Act”) to determine whether revocation of the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on hot-rolled steel products from China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Ukraine would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time. The Commission has determined to exercise its authority to extend the review period by up to 90 days.
February 6, 2025.
Caitlyn Costello ((202) 205-2058), Office of Investigations, U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20436. Hearing-impaired persons can obtain information on this matter by contacting the Commission's TDD terminal on 202-205-1810. Persons with mobility impairments who will need special assistance in gaining access to the Commission should contact the Office of the Secretary at 202-205-2000. General information concerning the Commission may also be obtained by accessing its internet server (
For further information concerning the conduct of these reviews and rules of general application, consult the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure, part 201, subparts A and B (19 CFR part 201), and part 207, subparts A, D, E, and F (19 CFR part 207).
Please note the Secretary's Office will accept only electronic filings during this time. Filings must be made through the Commission's Electronic Document Information System (EDIS,
A nonparty who has testimony that may aid the Commission's deliberations may request permission to present a short statement at the hearing. All parties and nonparties desiring to appear at the hearing and make oral presentations should attend a prehearing conference, if deemed necessary, to be held at 9:30 a.m. on July 23, 2025. Parties shall file and serve written testimony and presentation slides in connection with their presentation at the hearing by no later than noon on July 23, 2025. Oral testimony and written materials to be submitted at the public hearing are governed by sections 201.6(b)(2), 201.13(f), and 207.24 of the Commission's rules. Parties must submit any request to present a portion of their hearing testimony
Additional written submissions to the Commission, including requests pursuant to section 201.12 of the Commission's rules, shall not be accepted unless good cause is shown for accepting such submissions, or unless the submission is pursuant to a specific request by a Commissioner or Commission staff.
In accordance with sections 201.16(c) and 207.3 of the Commission's rules, each document filed by a party to these reviews must be served on all other parties to these reviews (as identified by either the public or BPI service list), and a certificate of service must be timely filed. The Secretary will not accept a document for filing without a certificate of service.
The Commission has determined that these reviews are extraordinarily complicated and therefore has determined to exercise its authority to extend the review period by up to 90 days pursuant to 19 U.S.C.1675(c)(5)(B).
By order of the Commission.
Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries.
Notice of Federal Advisory Committee meeting; amended.
This notice amends the location of the partially closed meeting of the Advisory Committee on Actuarial Examinations previously announced in the
January 6, 2025, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and January 7, 2025, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Elizabeth Van Osten, Designated Federal Officer, Advisory Committee on Actuarial Examinations, at (202) 312-3648 or
As published in the
In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, as amended), the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces the following meeting:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Notice; issuance.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued an Order to the licensees of non-power production or utilization facilities (NPUFs) identified in the Attachment to the Order. The Order modifies certain current NPUF licenses and establishes initial final safety analysis report update due dates for certain existing NPUFs consistent with the Non-Power Production or Utilization Facility License Renewal Rule dated December 30, 2024.
The Order was issued on February 6, 2025.
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2025-0016 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You may obtain publicly available information related to this document using any of the following methods:
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Duane Hardesty, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-3724, email:
The text of the Order is attached.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
In accordance with the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (AEA), the facilities identified in the Attachment to this Order are licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, the Commission) under Title 10 of the
The NRC licenses NPUFs under the authority granted in Sections 103 and 104 of the AEA. Section 103 of the AEA applies to commercial and industrial facilities, and Sections 104a and 104c of the AEA apply to facilities used for medical therapy and for research and development activities, respectively. The section of the AEA that provides licensing authority for the NRC corresponds directly to the class of license issued for a facility (
The AEA dictates an initial license term of no more than 40 years for class 103 facilities, but the AEA does not establish specific license terms for class 104 facilities, which are licensed under 10 CFR 50.21, “Class 104 licenses; for medical therapy and research and development facilities,” paragraph (a) or (c), nor does the AEA direct the NRC to specify license terms for class 104 facilities. Before the NPUF LR Rule, 10 CFR 50.51, “Continuation of license,” paragraph (a) stated, in part, “Each license will be issued for a fixed period of time to be specified in the license but in no case to exceed 40 years from date of issuance.” This included all facility licenses issued under 10 CFR part 50, including licenses for facilities issued under 10 CFR 50.21(a) or (c). Historically, the renewal of NPUF licenses afforded both the NRC and the public the opportunity to re-evaluate the licensing basis of the NPUF. The purpose of the renewal of NPUF licenses was to assess the likelihood of continued safe operation of the NPUF, such that radioactive materials can be used for beneficial civilian purposes in a safe and secure manner. For several reasons that are unique to NPUFs, the NRC determined as part of the NPUF LR Rule that this objective is achievable for certain NPUFs through existing oversight activities and review of FSAR updates. The NRC reached this conclusion based on three considerations: (1) low overall radiological risk, (2) limited aging-related issues, and (3) slow evolution of the design basis. Accordingly, the NPUF
The NPUF LR Rule explained that most licenses of existing NPUFs licensed under 10 CFR 50.21(a) or (c), other than testing facilities, will be modified by order to remove the license terms after the effective date of the rule (
The NPUF LR Rule added new 10 CFR 50.71(e)(4)(ii), which states, in part, that NPUF licensees shall file an FSAR update no more than 5 years from the date of the submittal of the updated FSAR required by 10 CFR 50.71(e)(3)(iv) or “by order.” The NPUF LR Rule explained that, consistent with this regulation, the NRC will issue orders to existing NPUF licensees, other than those with an application for license renewal pending before the NRC, dictating when their initial FSAR update will be due to the NRC, after which they will be subject to the new requirement in 10 CFR 50.71(e)(4)(ii) to submit subsequent FSAR updates. Accordingly,
This Order is effective upon issuance.
In accordance with 10 CFR 2.202, a licensee must, and any other person adversely affected by this Order may, submit a written answer to this Order under oath or affirmation within 20 days of its publication in the
To comply with the procedural requirements of E-Filing, at least 10 days prior to the filing deadline, the participant should contact the Office of the Secretary by email at
Information about applying for a digital ID certificate is available on the NRC's public website at
A person filing electronically using the NRC's adjudicatory E-Filing system may seek assistance by contacting the NRC's Electronic Filing Help Desk through the “Contact Us” link located on the NRC's public website at
Participants who believe that they have good cause for not submitting documents electronically must file an exemption request, in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302(g), with their initial paper filing stating why there is good cause for not filing electronically and requesting authorization to continue to submit documents in paper format. Such filings must be submitted in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302(b)-(d). Participants filing adjudicatory documents in this manner are responsible for serving their documents on all other participants. Participants granted an exemption under 10 CFR 2.302(g)(2) must still meet the electronic formatting requirement in 10 CFR 2.302(g)(1), unless the participant also seeks and is granted an exemption from 10 CFR 2.302(g)(1).
Documents submitted in adjudicatory proceedings will appear in the NRC's electronic hearing docket, which is publicly available at
If a person other than a licensee requests a hearing, that person shall set forth with particularity the manner in which their interest is adversely affected by this Order and shall address the criteria set forth in 10 CFR 2.309(d) and (f).
If a hearing is requested by a licensee or a person whose interest is adversely affected, the Commission will issue an order designating the time and place of any hearings. If a hearing is held, the issue to be considered at such hearing shall be whether this Order should be sustained. In the absence of any request for hearing, or written approval of an extension of time in which to request a hearing, the provisions specified in Section III shall be final 20 days from the date this Order is published in the
Dated: February 6, 2025.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Postal Regulatory Commission.
Notice.
The Commission is noticing a recent Postal Service filing for the Commission's consideration concerning a negotiated service agreement. This notice informs the public of the filing, invites public comment, and takes other administrative steps.
Submit comments electronically via the Commission's Filing Online system at
David A. Trissell, General Counsel, at 202-789-6820.
Pursuant to 39 CFR 3041.405, the Commission gives notice that the Postal Service filed request(s) for the Commission to consider matters related to Competitive negotiated service agreement(s). The request(s) may propose the addition of a negotiated service agreement from the Competitive product list or the modification of an existing product currently appearing on the Competitive product list.
The public portions of the Postal Service's request(s) can be accessed via the Commission's website (
Section II identifies the docket number(s) associated with each Postal Service request, if any, that will be reviewed in a public proceeding as defined by 39 CFR 3010.101(p), the title of each such request, the request's acceptance date, and the authority cited by the Postal Service for each request. For each such request, the Commission appoints an officer of the Commission to represent the interests of the general public in the proceeding, pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 505 and 39 CFR 3000.114 (Public Representative). Section II also establishes comment deadline(s) pertaining to each such request.
The Commission invites comments on whether the Postal Service's request(s) identified in Section II, if any, are consistent with the policies of title 39. Applicable statutory and regulatory requirements include 39 U.S.C. 3632, 39 U.S.C. 3633, 39 U.S.C. 3642, 39 CFR part 3035, and 39 CFR part 3041. Comment deadline(s) for each such request, if any, appear in Section II.
Section III identifies the docket number(s) associated with each Postal Service request, if any, to add a standardized distinct product to the Competitive product list or to amend a standardized distinct product, the title of each such request, the request's acceptance date, and the authority cited by the Postal Service for each request. Standardized distinct products are negotiated service agreements that are variations of one or more Competitive products, and for which financial models, minimum rates, and classification criteria have undergone advance Commission review.
1.
2.
3.
4.
None.
This Notice will be published in the
Postal Service
Notice.
The Postal Service gives notice of filing a request with the Postal Regulatory Commission to add a Priority Mail Express International, Priority Mail International & First-Class Package International Service contract to the list of Negotiated Service Agreements in the Competitive Product List in the Mail Classification Schedule.
Christopher C. Meyerson, (202) 268-7820.
The United States Postal Service® hereby gives notice that, pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 3642 and 3632(b)(3), on February 4, 2025, it filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission a
Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Notice.
The Office of Science and Technology Policy publishes the names of the members selected to serve on its SES Performance Review Board (PRB).
Membership is effective on the date this notice is published in the
Ms. Caitlin Pepicelli, Human Capital Specialist or Ms. Stacy Murphy, Deputy Chief Operations Officer/Security Officer, Office of Science and Technology Policy, 1650 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20504, 202-456-4444.
Section 4314(c) of Title 5, U.S.C. requires each agency to establish, in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Office of Personnel Management, one or more PRBs. The purpose of this PRB is to review and make recommendations concerning proposed performance appraisals, ratings, bonuses, pay adjustments, and other appropriate personnel actions for incumbents of the SES positions. The Board shall consist of at least three members and more than half of the members shall consist of career appointees. The names and titles of the PRB members are as follows:
Marie Scott, Associate General Counsel, Children, Families and Aging Division, Department of Health and Human Services;
Scott Driggs, Chief Counsel, Office of the Chief Counsel, Denver, Department of Health and Human Services;
Rachel Park, Chief Counsel, Office of the Chief Counsel, New York, Department of Health and Human Services;
Constance Kossally, Chief Counsel, Office of the Chief Counsel, Atlanta, Department of Health and Human Services;
Alphonso J. Hughes, Executive Assistant Director, Administration Group, Bureau of ATF, Department of Justice;
Paula Lee, Chief Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, San Francisco, Department of Health and Human Services.
Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Act”),
The Exchange proposes to amend proposes to amend Exchange Rule 1014, Imposition of Fines for Minor Rule Violations, to adopt new paragraph (e)
The text of the proposed rule change is available on the Exchange's website at
In its filing with the Commission, the Exchange included statements concerning the purpose of and basis for the proposed rule change and discussed any comments it received on the proposed rule change. The text of these statements may be examined at the places specified in Item III below. The Exchange has prepared summaries, set forth in sections A, B, and C below, of the most significant aspects of such statements.
The Exchange proposes to amend Exchange Rule 1014, Imposition of Fines for Minor Rule Violations, to adopt rule violations and sanctions that will be applicable to the Trading Floor under the Exchange's proposed Minor Rule Violation Plan (“MRVP”). The Exchange proposes these rules in conjunction with the recent approval of MIAX Sapphire as a national securities exchange.
Rule 1014 provides that in lieu of commencing a disciplinary proceeding, the Exchange may, subject to the certain requirements set forth in the Rule, impose a fine, not to exceed $5,000 on any Member
Current Rule 1014(d) currently states, “The Exchange's trading conduct and decorum policies shall be distributed to Members periodically and shall set forth the specific dollar amounts that may be imposed as a fine hereunder with respect to any violations of those policies.” The Exchange now proposes to amend the text of the rule to reflect the change proposed herein regarding trading conduct and decorum fines. Specifically, the Exchange proposes to amend current Rule 1014(d) to state, “The Exchange's trading conduct and decorum policies shall be distributed to Members periodically.” Under proposed Rule 1014(e)(4) the Exchange has proposed fine amounts for violations of Exchange Rule 2080(b) through Rule 2080(d) and believes that trading conduct and decorum is best addressed in new paragraph (e), which is focused on violations of Trading Floor rules.
The Exchange also proposes to amend Rule 1014(d)(5) to make a technical non-substantive correction to the table which describes violations of Rule 520(b). Specifically, the column titled, “Number of Violations Within One Calendar Year,” provides a numerical range of violations which corresponds to the second column which provides the associated sanction. For example, the first row provides that 1 to 5 violations will result in a sanction consisting of a Letter of Caution. Similarly, the second row provides that 6 to 10 violations within one calendar year will result in a sanction consisting of a fine in the amount of $500. The Exchange now proposes to correct the fourth row in the first column to state “16 to 20” whereas it currently incorrectly states “16 or 20.” The Exchange believes this correction will provide clarity and precision in the Exchange's rules and eliminate the potential for confusion regarding violations of Exchange Rule 520(b).
The Exchange proposes to adopt new paragraph (e), Trading Floor Violations Subject to Fines, to adopt rule violations and sanctions applicable to the Trading Floor under the Exchange's Minor Rule Violation Plan. The Exchange anticipates opening its physical trading floor in Q2 of 2025 and proposes to adopt these rules in furtherance of the Exchange's regulatory obligations as a self-regulatory organization. The Exchange believes that the proposed fines for Trading Floor violations are appropriate to deter Members from violating requirements and restrictions which are necessary for the orderly operation of a Trading Floor.
The Exchange proposes to adopt 1014(e)(1), General Responsibilities of Floor Brokers
Next, the Exchange proposes to adopt 1014(e)(2), Failure to Properly Record Orders pursuant to Exchange Rule 2030(e). Under this proposed rule, any Floor Participant
Next, the Exchange proposes to adopt 1014(e)(3), Failure to Properly Execute a Qualified Floor Order (QFO), pursuant to Exchange Rule 2040. Under this proposed rule, any Floor Participant who fails to properly execute a QFO shall be shall be subject to the following fines:
Next, the Exchange proposes to adopt 1014(e)(4), Trading Conduct and Order & Decorum on the Trading Floor, pursuant to Rule 2080(b)-(d). Under this proposed rule, violations of Rule 2080 related to Trading Floor Conduct and Decorum shall be subject to the following fines:
Next, the Exchange proposes to adopt 1014(e)(5), Discretionary Transactions. Under this proposed rule, violations of Rule 2035 regarding Discretionary Transactions shall be subject to the following fines:
Next, the Exchange proposes to adopt 1014(e)(6), Floor Participant Not Available to Reconcile an Uncompared Trade pursuant to Rule 2085. Under this proposed rule, violations of Rule 2085 regarding the resolution of uncompared trades shall be subject to the following fines:
Next, the Exchange proposes to adopt Rule 1014(e)(7), Floor Participant Communication and Equipment, pursuant to Rule 2070. Under this proposed rule, violations of Rule 2070 regarding Floor Participant Communications and Equipment shall be subject to the following fines:
Next, the Exchange proposes to adopt Rule 1014(e)(8), Improper Vocalization of a Trade, pursuant to Policy .09 of Rule 2040. Under this proposed rule, violations of Policy .09 of Rule 2040 regarding the requirements for public outcry shall be subject to the following fines:
Next, the Exchange proposes to adopt Rule 1014(e)(9), Floor Market Maker Failure to Comply with Quotation Requirements, pursuant to Rule 2105(c)(1). Under this proposed rule, violations of Rule 2105(c)(1) regarding a Floor Market Maker's Open Outcry Quoting Obligations shall be subject to the following fines:
Next, the Exchange proposes to adopt Rule 1014(e)(10), Floor Market Maker Quote Spread Parameters, pursuant to Rule 2105(d)(1). Under this proposed rule, violations of Rule 2105(d)(1) regarding the legal bid/ask differential requirements on the Trading Floor shall be subject to the following fines:
Next, the Exchange proposes to adopt Rule 1014(e)(11), Floor Broker Failure to Honor the Priority of Bids and Offers, pursuant to Rule 2045(d). Under this proposed rule, violations of Rule 2045(d) regarding a Floor Broker's obligations in determining Time Priority Sequence shall be subject to the following fines:
Finally, the Exchange proposes to adopt Rule 1014(e)(12), Floor Broker Failure to Identify a Broker Dealer Order, pursuant to Policy .02 of Rule 2040. Under this proposed rule, violations of Policy .02 of Rule 2040 regarding a Floor Broker's responsibility to identify its orders shall be subject to the following fines:
The Exchange notes that the proposed violations listed above are substantially similar to the Rules of BOX Options Exchange's Minor Rule Violation Plan regarding violations and sanctions applicable to a physical trading floor.
The Exchange believes that its proposed rule change is consistent with the Act and the rules and regulations thereunder applicable to the Exchange and, in particular, the requirements of Section 6(b) of the Act.
The Exchange believes that the proposed changes to Rule 1014 are consistent with and further the objectives of the Act. Additionally, the Exchange believes that the proposal is consistent with Section 6(b)(6) of the Act
The Exchange believes that the proposed fines for Trading Floor violations are appropriate to deter Members from violating requirements and restrictions which are necessary for the orderly operation of a Trading Floor. The fines should create further deterrents for certain activity on the Trading Floor which disrupts the orderly operation of the Trading Floor. Further, the minor rule plan assists the regulatory staff in protecting its market to the benefit of the public. Finally, the Exchange believes that the proposal is consistent with the public interest, the protection of investors, and otherwise furthers the purposes of the Act, because Rule 1014 strengthens the Exchange's ability to carry out its oversight and enforcement responsibilities as an SRO in cases where full disciplinary proceedings may be unsuitable in view of the minor nature of the particular violation. Additionally, these rules are based on those of a competing options exchange that also has a trading floor.
The Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will impose any burden on competition that is not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act.
The Exchange notes that the rule changes being proposed are similar to the rules of the BOX Options Exchange.
As such, the Exchange does not believe the proposal will impose any burden on inter-market competition not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purpose of the Act. Further, the Exchange does not believe the proposal will impose any burden on intra-market competition, as all similarly situated market participants will be treated in the same manner under this proposal.
Written comments were neither solicited nor received.
Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed rule change is consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
• Use the Commission's internet comment form (
• Send an email to
• Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549-1090.
The Commission finds that the proposed rule change is consistent with
As stated above, generally the Exchange proposes to amend Exchange Rule 1014 to adopt rule violations and sanctions that will be applicable to the Trading Floor, in conjunction with the recent approval of MIAX Sapphire as a national securities exchange. Specifically, the Exchange proposes to amend Rule 1014 in the following ways: to (i) modify the rule text of paragraph (a) to add a reference to proposed paragraph (e); (ii) modify the rule text of paragraph (d)(4) for clarity and precision; (iii) amend the table in paragraph (d)(5) to make a minor non-substantive technical correction; and (iv) adopt new paragraph (e) to add violations that may occur on the Exchange's Trading Floor that the Exchange believes to be minor in nature.
The Commission believes that Rule 1014 is an effective way to discipline a member for a minor violation of a rule. The Commission finds that the Exchange's proposal to amend Rule 1014 to adopt rule violations and sanctions that will be applicable to the Trading Floor, is consistent with the Act because it may help the Exchange's ability to better carry out its oversight and enforcement responsibilities. The Commission also believes that the Exchange's proposal to make non-substantive and technical changes is consistent with the Act because such changes will add clarity and accuracy to the Exchange's rules.
In approving the propose rule change, the Commission in no way minimizes the importance of compliance with the Exchange's rules and all other rules subject to fines under Rule 1014. The Commission believes that a violation of any self-regulatory organization's rules, as well as Commission rules, is a serious matter. However, Rule 1014 provides a reasonable means of addressing rule violations that may not rise to the level of requiring formal disciplinary proceedings, while providing greater flexibility in handling certain violations. The Commission expects that the Exchange will continue to conduct surveillance with due diligence and make a determination based on its findings, on a case-by-case basis, whether a fine of more or less than the recommended amount is appropriate for a violation under Rule 1014 or whether a violation requires formal disciplinary action.
For the same reasons discussed above, the Commission finds good cause, pursuant to Section 19(b)(2) of the Act,
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated authority.
Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Act”),
The Exchange proposes to update certain representations made in the proposed rule change previously filed with and approved by the Commission relating to the shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust (the “Trust”), specifically to allow for “in-kind” transfers of the Trust's bitcoin. Shares of Trust (“Shares”) are currently listed and traded on the Exchange under Nasdaq Rule 5711(d). This Amendment No. 1 supersedes the original filing in its entirety.
The text of the proposed rule change is available on the Exchange's website at
In its filing with the Commission, the Exchange included statements concerning the purpose of and basis for the proposed rule change and discussed any comments it received on the proposed rule change. The text of these statements may be examined at the places specified in Item IV below. The Exchange has prepared summaries, set forth in sections A, B, and C below, of the most significant aspects of such statements.
The Commission approved the listing and trading of the Shares on the Exchange pursuant to Nasdaq Rule 5711(d)
Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC (the “Bitcoin Custodian”) is the custodian for the Trust's bitcoin holdings, and maintains a custody account for the Trust (“Custody Account”); Coinbase, Inc. (the “Prime Execution Agent”), an affiliate of the Bitcoin Custodian, is the prime broker for the Trust and maintains a trading account for the Trust (“Trading Account”); and Bank of New York Mellon is the custodian for the Trust's cash holdings (the “Cash Custodian” and together with the Bitcoin Custodian, the “Custodians”) and the administrator of the Trust (the “Trust Administrator”).
The Exchange now proposes to amend representations regarding the Trust's creation and redemption process as set forth in the previous rule filing to list and trade Shares, specifically to allow for in-kind transfers of the Trust's bitcoin.
The Exchange proposes to amend the Amendment No. 1 section entitled “Custody of the Trust's Bitcoin and Creation and Redemption” to add further detail on how the Trust will handle transfers of bitcoin in connection with the proposed in-kind creation and redemption process, and make certain conforming changes to the description of the cash creation and redemption process. As proposed, the language in the “Custody of the Trust's Bitcoin and Creation and Redemption” section from Amendment No. 1 will be deleted and replaced with the following language.
An investment in the Shares is backed by bitcoin held by the Bitcoin Custodian on behalf of the Trust. All of the Trust's bitcoin will be held in the Custody Account, other than the Trust's bitcoin which is temporarily maintained in the Trading Account under limited circumstances,
The Trust's bitcoin holdings and cash holdings from time to time may temporarily be maintained in the Trading Account held with the Prime Execution Agent, an affiliate of the Bitcoin Custodian. Coinbase Inc. serves as the Trust's Prime Execution Agent pursuant to the Trust's agreement with the Prime Execution Agent (“Prime Execution Agent Agreement”). In this capacity, the Prime Execution Agent facilitates (1) the buying and selling of bitcoin by the Trust in response to cash creations and redemptions between the Trust and registered broker-dealers that are Depositary Trust Company (“DTC”) participants that enter into an authorized participant agreement with the Sponsor and the Trustee (“Authorized Participants”), (2) the transfer of bitcoin between the Trust and an Authorized Participant, its designated agent or client as part of in-kind creations and redemptions, and (3) the sale of bitcoin to pay the Sponsor's fee, any other Trust expenses not assumed by the Sponsor, to the extent applicable, and in extraordinary circumstances, in connection with the liquidation of the Trust's bitcoin.
The Authorized Participants will deliver cash or bitcoin to create shares and will receive cash or bitcoin when redeeming shares.
For a cash creation or redemption of a Basket of Shares, the Authorized Participant will be required to submit the cash creation or redemption order by an early order cutoff time (the “Cash Order Cutoff Time”). The Cash Order Cutoff Time will initially be 6:00 p.m. ET on the business day prior to trade date.
For an in-kind creation or redemption of a Basket of Shares, the Authorized Participant will be required to submit the in-kind creation or redemption order by an order cutoff (“In-Kind Order Cutoff Time”). The In-Kind Order Cutoff Time will initially be 3:59 p.m. ET on the trade date.
In connection with cash creations and cash redemptions, the Authorized Participants will submit orders to create or redeem Baskets of Shares exclusively in exchange for cash. The Trust will engage in bitcoin transactions to convert cash into bitcoin (in
Following the Cash Order Cutoff Time for a creation order, the Trust will choose, in its sole discretion, to enter into a transaction with a Bitcoin Trading Counterparty or the Prime Execution Agent to buy bitcoin in exchange for the cash proceeds from such cash creation order. On settlement date for a cash creation, the Trust delivers Shares to the Authorized Participant in exchange for cash received from the Authorized Participant. Also, on or around the settlement date, the Bitcoin Trading Counterparty or Prime Execution Agent, as applicable, deposits the required bitcoin pursuant to its trade with the Trust into the Trust's Trading Account in exchange for cash. In the event the Trust has not been able to successfully execute and complete settlement of a bitcoin transaction by the settlement date of the cash creation order, the Authorized Participant will be given the option to (1) cancel the cash creation order, or (2) accept that the Trust will continue to attempt to complete the execution, which will delay the settlement date of the cash creation order. With respect to a cash creation order, as between the Trust and the Authorized Participant, the Authorized Participant is responsible for the dollar cost of the difference between the bitcoin price utilized in calculating NAV per Share on trade date and the price at which the Trust acquires the bitcoin to the extent the price realized in buying the bitcoin is higher than the bitcoin price utilized in the NAV. To the extent the price realized in buying the bitcoin is lower than the price utilized in the NAV, the Authorized Participant shall get to keep the dollar impact of any such difference.
Because the Trust's Trading Account may not be funded with cash on trade date for the purchase of bitcoin associated with a cash creation order, the Trust may borrow trade credits (“Trade Credits”) in the form of cash from Coinbase Credit, Inc. (the “Trade Credit Lender”), an affiliate of the Prime Execution Agent, under the trade financing agreement (“Trade Financing Agreement”) or may require the Authorized Participant to deliver the required cash for the cash creation order on trade date. The extension of Trade Credits on trade date allows the Trust to purchase bitcoin through the Prime Execution Agent on trade date, with such bitcoin being deposited in the Trust's Trading Account. On settlement date for a cash creation order, the Trust delivers Shares to the Authorized Participant in exchange for cash received from the Authorized Participant. To the extent Trade Credits were utilized, the Trust uses the cash to repay the Trade Credits borrowed from the Trade Credit Lender. On settlement date for a cash creation order, the bitcoin purchased is swept from the Trust's Trading Account to the Trust's Custody Account pursuant to a regular end-of-day sweep process.
In connection with in-kind creations, the Authorized Participants will submit orders by the In-Kind Order Cutoff Time to create Baskets of Shares in exchange for bitcoin.
On settlement date for an in-kind creation, the Trust delivers Shares to the Authorized Participant in exchange for bitcoin received from the Authorized Participant, or its designated agent or client. The Authorized Participant or its designated agent or client will deposit such bitcoin to the Trust's Trading Account at the Prime Execution Agent. In the event the Authorized Participant, its designated agent or client, has not deposited the bitcoin to the Trust's Trading Account at the Prime Execution Agent by the applicable time on the settlement date of the in-kind creation order, the Authorized Participant will be given the option to (1) cancel the in-kind creation order, (2) delay settlement of the order to enable delivery of bitcoin at a later date, or (3) accept that the Trust will execute a bitcoin transaction required for the creation and the Authorized Participant will deliver the U.S. dollars required for this purchase. In the case of (3) only, the Authorized Participant is responsible for the dollar cost of the difference between the bitcoin price utilized in calculating NAV per Share on trade date and the price at which the Trust acquires the bitcoin to the extent the price realized in buying the bitcoin is higher than the bitcoin price utilized in the NAV. To the extent the price realized in buying the bitcoin is lower than the price utilized in the NAV, the Authorized Participant shall get to keep the dollar impact of any such difference.
Following the Cash Order Cutoff Time for a cash redemption order, the Trust may choose, in its sole discretion, to enter into a transaction with a Bitcoin Trading Counterparty or the Prime Execution Agent, to sell bitcoin in exchange for cash. After the Cash Order Cutoff Time, the Trust instructs the Bitcoin Custodian to prepare to move the associated bitcoin from the Trust's Custody Account to the Trust's Trading Account. On settlement date for a redemption order, the Authorized Participant delivers the necessary Shares to the Trust, and on or around settlement date, a Bitcoin Trading Counterparty or Prime Execution Agent, as applicable, delivers the cash associated with the Trust's sale of bitcoin to the Trust in exchange for the Trust's bitcoin, and the Trust delivers cash to the Authorized Participant. In the event the Trust has not been able to successfully execute and complete settlement of a bitcoin transaction by the settlement date, the Authorized Participant will be given the option to (1) cancel the redemption order, or (2) accept that the Trust will continue to attempt to complete the execution, which will delay the settlement date. With respect to a cash redemption order, between the Trust and the Authorized Participant, the Authorized Participant will be responsible for the dollar cost of the difference between the bitcoin price utilized in calculating the NAV per Share on trade date and the price realized in selling the bitcoin to raise the cash needed for the cash redemption order to the extent the price realized in selling the bitcoin is lower than the bitcoin price utilized in the NAV. To the extent the price realized in selling the bitcoin is higher than the price utilized in the NAV, the Authorized Participant will get to keep the dollar impact of any such difference.
The Trust may use financing in connection with a cash redemption order when bitcoin remains in the Trust's Custody Account at the point of intended execution of a sale of bitcoin. In those circumstances, the Trust may borrow Trade Credits in the form of bitcoin from the Trade Credit Lender, which allows the Trust to sell bitcoin through the Prime Execution Agent on trade date, and the cash proceeds are deposited in the Trust's Trading Account. On settlement date for a redemption order, the Trust delivers cash to the Authorized Participant in exchange for Shares received from the Authorized Participant. In the event financing was used, the Trust will use the bitcoin moved from the Trust's Custody Account to the Trading Account to repay the Trade Credits borrowed from the Trade Credit Lender.
In connection with in-kind redemptions, the Authorized Participants will submit orders by the In-Kind Order Cutoff Time to redeem Baskets of Shares in exchange for bitcoin.
On settlement date for an in-kind redemption, the Trust delivers bitcoin to the account of the Authorized Participant or its designated agent or client at the Prime Execution Agent in exchange for Shares received from the Authorized Participant.
The Exchange also proposes to modify the Amendment No. 1 section “Creation and Redemption of Shares” to integrate the proposed in-kind creation and redemption process. Specifically, Amendment No. 1 currently states that Baskets are only issued or redeemed in exchange for an amount of cash determined by the Trustee on each day that Nasdaq is open for regular trading.
The Exchange now proposes to delete the above language from Amendment No. 1, and replace it with the following: Baskets are only issued or redeemed in exchange for an amount of bitcoin and/or cash determined by the Trustee on each day that Nasdaq is open for regular trading. No Shares are issued unless the Cash Custodian has allocated to the Trust's account the corresponding amount of cash or the Prime Execution Agent has allocated to the Trust's account the corresponding amount of bitcoin.
The Exchange believes that its proposal is consistent with Section 6(b) of the Act,
The Exchange believes that permitting in-kind transfers with respect to the Trust's creation and redemption process promotes just and equitable principles of trade and helps remove impediments to and perfect the mechanism of a free and open market and a national market system. As discussed above, the proposed changes would permit the Trust to utilize an in-kind creation and redemption process in addition to the cash creation and redemption process. This added ability would make the Trust (and the market more generally) operate more efficiently because Authorized Participants, their designated agents or clients, would be able to source bitcoin rather than to provide cash to the Trust and/or receive bitcoin from the Trust. This means that the Authorized Participant, its designated agent or client, would be responsible for buying and selling the bitcoin rather than the Trust itself, which would potentially lessen the impact on the market of the Trust on both sides of the transaction by allowing the Authorized Participant to decide how and where to source the underlying bitcoin for creations and deciding how, where, and whether to sell the underlying bitcoin for redemptions. This could lead to improvements in the creation and redemption process for both Authorized Participants and the Trust, and could potentially increase efficiency, and ultimately benefit the end investors in the Trust.
Except for the changes described above, all other representations in Amendment No. 1 remain unchanged and will continue to constitute continued listing requirements. In addition, the Trust will continue to comply with the terms of Amendment No. 1 and the requirements in Rule 5711(d).
The Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will impose any burden on competition not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. As discussed above, the proposed amendments are intended to reflect changes to the Trust's creation and redemption process, specifically to allow for in-kind transfers. As discussed above, the Exchange believes that the proposed rule change would increase operational efficiencies for the Trust (and the market more generally). The Exchange believes these changes will not impose any burden on competition.
No written comments were either solicited or received.
Within 45 days of the date of publication of this notice in the
Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views and arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed rule change, as modified by Amendment No. 1, is consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
• Use the Commission's internet comment form (
• Send an email to
• Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549-1090.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated authority.
Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission” or “SEC”).
Notice.
Notice of an application for an order pursuant to section 6(c) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “Act”) for an exemption from sections 18(a)(2), 18(c), and 18(i) of the Act, pursuant to sections 6(c) and 23(c) of the Act for an exemption from rule 23c-3 under the Act, and pursuant to section 17(d) of the Act and rule 17d-1 thereunder.
Applicants request an order to permit certain registered closed-end investment companies to issue multiple classes of shares and to impose early withdrawal charges and asset-based distribution and/or service fees.
SEG Partners Long/Short Equity Fund and Select Equity Group, L.P.
The application was filed on January 6, 2025.
An order granting the requested relief will be issued unless the Commission orders a hearing. Interested persons may request a hearing on any application by emailing the SEC's Secretary at
The Commission:
Trace W. Rakestraw, Senior Special Counsel, at (202) 551-6825 (Division of Investment Management, Chief Counsel's Office).
For Applicants' representations, legal analysis, and conditions, please refer to Applicants' application, dated January 6, 2025, which may be obtained via the Commission's website by searching for the file number at the top of this document, or for an Applicant using the Company name search field on the SEC's EDGAR system. The SEC's EDGAR system may be searched at
For the Commission, by the Division of Investment Management, under delegated authority.
Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Act”),
The Exchange proposes to delay the implementation of the new Options Regulatory Fee (“ORF”) and methodology proposed in SR-NASDAQ-2024-078.
The proposed rule change, including the Exchange's statement of the purpose of, and statutory basis for, the proposed rule change, is available on the Exchange's website at
Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed rule change is consistent with the Act.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated authority.
Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Act”),
The Exchange proposes to delay the implementation of the new Options Regulatory Fee (“ORF”) and methodology proposed in SR-Phlx-2024-66.
The proposed rule change, including the Exchange's statement of the purpose of, and statutory basis for, the proposed rule change, is available on the Exchange's website at
Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed rule change is consistent with the Act.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated authority.
Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1)
The Exchange proposes to list and trade shares of the following under NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E: Grayscale Litecoin Trust (LTC) (the “Trust”). This Amendment No. 1 to SR-NYSEARCA-2025-05 replaces SR-NYSEARCA-2025-05 as originally filed and supersedes such filing in its entirety. The proposed rule change is available on the Exchange's website at
In its filing with the Commission, the self-regulatory organization included statements concerning the purpose of, and basis for, the proposed rule change and discussed any comments it received on the proposed rule change. The text of those statements may be examined at the places specified in Item IV below. The Exchange has prepared summaries, set forth in sections A, B, and C below, of the most significant parts of such statements.
Under NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E, the Exchange may propose to list and/or trade pursuant to unlisted trading privileges “Commodity-Based Trust Shares.”
The Trust is the world's largest Litecoin (“LTC”) investment fund by assets under management as of the date of this filing. The Trust has approximately $215.4 million in assets under management
The sponsors of the Trust are Grayscale Operating, LLC and Grayscale Investments Sponsors, LLC (each, a “Sponsor” and, collectively, the “Sponsors”),
The Trust is a Delaware statutory trust, formed on January 26, 2018, that operates pursuant to a trust agreement between the Sponsor and the Trustee (“Trust Agreement”). The Trust has no fixed termination date.
According to the Annual Report, the Trust's assets consist solely of LTC.
Each Share represents a proportional interest, based on the total number of Shares outstanding, in the Trust's assets as determined by reference to the Index Price,
The activities of the Trust are limited to (i) issuing “Baskets” (as defined below) in exchange for LTC transferred to the Trust as consideration in connection with creations, (ii) transferring or selling LTC as necessary to cover the “Sponsor's Fee”
The Trust will not be actively managed. It will not engage in any activities designed to obtain a profit from, or to ameliorate losses caused by, changes in the market prices of LTC.
The Trust is not a registered investment company under the Investment Company Act and the Sponsors believe that the Trust is not required to register under the Investment Company Act.
According to the Annual Report, and as further described below, the Trust's investment objective is for the value of the Shares (based on LTC per Share) to reflect the value of the LTC held by the Trust, determined by reference to the Index Price, less the Trust's expenses and other liabilities. While an investment in the Shares is not a direct investment in LTC, the Shares are designed to provide investors with a cost-effective and convenient way to gain investment exposure to LTC. Generally speaking, a substantial direct investment in LTC may require expensive and sometimes complicated arrangements in connection with the acquisition, security and safekeeping of the LTC and may involve the payment of substantial fees to acquire such LTC from third-party facilitators through cash payments of U.S. dollars. Because the value of the Shares is correlated with the value of LTC held by the Trust, it is important to understand the investment attributes of, and the market for, LTC.
The Trust uses the Index Price to calculate its “NAV,” which is the aggregate value, expressed in U.S. dollars, of the Trust's assets (other than U.S. dollars or other fiat currency), less the U.S. dollar value of the Trust's expenses and other liabilities calculated in the manner set forth under “Valuation of LTC and Determination of NAV.” “NAV per Share” is calculated by dividing NAV by the number of Shares then outstanding.
The following is a description of the material terms of the Trust Agreement as they relate to valuation of the Trust's LTC and the NAV calculations.
On each business day at 4:00 p.m., New York time, or as soon thereafter as practicable (the “Evaluation Time”), the Sponsor will evaluate the LTC held by the Trust and calculate and publish the NAV of the Trust. To calculate the NAV, the Sponsor will:
1. Determine the Index Price as of such business day.
2. Multiply the Index Price by the Trust's aggregate number of LTC owned by the Trust as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the immediately preceding day, less the aggregate number of LTC payable as the accrued and unpaid Sponsor's Fee as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the immediately preceding day.
3. Add the U.S. dollar value of LTC, calculated using the Index Price, receivable under pending creation orders, if any, determined by multiplying the number of the Baskets represented by such creation orders by the Basket Amount and then multiplying such product by the Index Price.
4. Subtract the U.S. dollar amount of accrued and unpaid Additional Trust Expenses, if any.
5. Subtract the U.S. dollar value of the LTC, calculated using the Index Price, to be distributed under pending redemption orders, if any, determined by multiplying the number of Baskets to be redeemed represented by such redemption orders by the Basket Amount and then multiplying such
6. Subtract the U.S. dollar amount of the Sponsor's Fee that accrues for such business day, as calculated based on the NAV Fee Basis Amount for such business day.
In the event that the Sponsor determines that the primary methodology used to determine the Index Price is not an appropriate basis for valuation of the Trust's LTC, the Sponsor will utilize the cascading set of rules as described in “Determination of the Index Price When Index Price is Unavailable” below.
According to the Annual Report, LTC is a digital asset that is created and transmitted through the operations of the peer-to-peer Litecoin Network, a decentralized network of computers that operates on cryptographic protocols. No single entity owns or operates the Litecoin Network, the infrastructure of which is collectively maintained by a decentralized user base. The Litecoin Network allows people to exchange tokens of value, called LTC, which are recorded on a public transaction ledger known as a blockchain. LTC can be used to pay for goods and services, including computational power on the Litecoin Network, or it can be converted to fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, at rates determined on Digital Asset Trading Platforms or in individual end-user-to-end-user transactions under a barter system.
Litecoin is an alternative software implementation of Bitcoin that was created in late 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee, who set out to create a proof-of-work currency that could be an alternative to Bitcoin. Ultimately, this resulted in a clone of Bitcoin. Although Litecoin is thus very similar to Bitcoin, there are several key differences between the Litecoin Network and the Bitcoin Network. These differences include a block generation time of approximately two and a half minutes for LTC as compared to ten minutes for Bitcoin, and a cap on the number of coins that will be created of 84 million LTC, as compared to 21 million for Bitcoin. As a result of these differences, transactions using LTC occur four times faster than transactions using Bitcoin and at a lower cost. Litecoin also implemented crypt, a distinct hashing algorithm different from Bitcoin's SHA-256 hashing algorithm, which does not require ASICs and therefore results in less centralized mining hash power.
The Litecoin Network is decentralized and does not require governmental authorities or financial institution intermediaries to create, transmit or determine the value of LTC. Rather, LTC is created and allocated by the Litecoin Network protocol through a “mining” process. The value of LTC is determined by the supply of and demand for LTC on the Digital Asset Trading Platforms or in private end-user-to-end-user transactions.
Similar to the Bitcoin Network, the Litecoin Network operates on a proof-of-work model. New LTC is created and rewarded to the miners of a block in the Litecoin Blockchain for verifying transactions. The Litecoin Blockchain is effectively a decentralized database that includes all blocks that have been mined by miners and it is updated to include new blocks as they are solved. Each LTC transaction is broadcast to the Litecoin Network and, when included in a block, recorded in the Litecoin Blockchain. As each new block records outstanding LTC transactions, and outstanding transactions are settled and validated through such recording, the Litecoin
The Litecoin Blockchain represents a complete, transparent and unbroken history of all transactions of the Litecoin Network. The current miner reward of 6.25 LTC per block was reduced from 12.5 LTC per block by 50% in August 2023, and will be further reduced by another 50% every 840,000 blocks, or approximately four years, thereafter. A block of transactions is confirmed on the Litecoin Network approximately every 2.5 minutes. As of September 30, 2024, approximately 75.0 million LTC were outstanding.
Similar to Bitcoin, LTC can be used to pay for goods and services or can be converted to fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, at rates determined on Digital Asset Trading Platforms or in individual end-user-to-end-user transactions under a barter system. Additionally, LTC is used to pay for transaction fees to miners for verifying transactions on the Litecoin Network.
In order to own, transfer or use LTC directly on the Litecoin Network (as opposed to through an intermediary, such as a custodian), a person generally must have internet access to connect to the Litecoin Network. LTC transactions may be made directly between end-users without the need for a third-party intermediary. To prevent the possibility of double-spending LTC, a user must notify the Litecoin Network of the transaction by broadcasting the transaction data to its network peers. The Litecoin Network provides confirmation against double-spending by memorializing every transaction in the Litecoin Blockchain, which is publicly accessible and transparent. This memorialization and verification against double-spending is accomplished through the Litecoin Network mining process, which adds “blocks” of data, including recent transaction information, to the Litecoin Blockchain.
Prior to engaging in LTC transactions directly on the Litecoin Network, a user generally must first install on its computer or mobile device a Litecoin Network software program that will allow the user to generate a private and public key pair associated with a LTC address. Each Litecoin Network address, or wallet, is associated with a unique “public key” and “private key” pair. To receive LTC, the LTC recipient must provide its public key to the party initiating the transfer. This activity is analogous to a recipient for a transaction in U.S. dollars providing a routing address in wire instructions to the payor so that cash may be wired to the recipient's account. The payor approves the transfer to the address provided by the recipient by “signing” a transaction that consists of the recipient's public key with the private key of the address from where the payor is transferring the LTC. The recipient, however, does not make public or provide to the sender its related private key.
Neither the recipient nor the sender reveals their private keys in a transaction, because the private key authorizes transfer of the funds in that address to other users. Therefore, if a user loses his or her private key, the user may permanently lose access to the LTC contained in the associated address. Likewise, LTC is irretrievably lost if the private key associated with them is deleted and no backup has been made. When sending LTC, a user's Litecoin Network software program must validate the transaction with the associated private key. In addition, since every computation on the Litecoin Network requires processing power, there is a transaction fee involved with the transfer that is paid by the payor. The resulting digitally validated transaction is sent by the user's Litecoin Network software program to the Litecoin Network validators to allow transaction confirmation.
Litecoin Network validators record and confirm transactions when they validate and add blocks of information to the Litecoin Blockchain. When a validator is selected to validate a block, it creates that block, which includes data relating to (i) the verification of newly submitted and accepted transactions and (ii) a reference to the prior block in the Litecoin Blockchain to which the new block is being added. The validator becomes aware of outstanding, unrecorded transactions through the data packet transmission and distribution discussed above.
Upon the addition of a block of LTC transactions, the Litecoin Network software program of both the spending party and the receiving party will show confirmation of the transaction on the Litecoin Blockchain and reflect an adjustment to the LTC balance in each party's Litecoin Network public key, completing the LTC transaction. Once a transaction is confirmed on the Litecoin Blockchain, it is irreversible.
Some LTC transactions are conducted “off-blockchain” and are therefore not recorded in the Litecoin Blockchain. These “off-blockchain transactions” involve the transfer of control over, or ownership of, a specific digital wallet holding LTC or the reallocation of ownership of certain LTC in a pooled-ownership digital wallet, such as a digital wallet owned by a Digital Asset Trading Platform. In contrast to on-blockchain transactions, which are publicly recorded on the Litecoin Blockchain, information and data regarding off-blockchain transactions are generally not publicly available. Therefore, off-blockchain transactions are not truly LTC transactions in that they do not involve the transfer of transaction data on the Litecoin Network and do not reflect a movement of LTC between addresses recorded in the Litecoin Blockchain. For these reasons, off-blockchain transactions are subject to risks as any such transfer of LTC ownership is not protected by the protocol behind the Litecoin Network or recorded in, and validated through, the blockchain mechanism.
The initial creation of LTC was in connection with a clone of the Bitcoin blockchain in 2011. All additional LTC have been created through the mining process.
The Litecoin Network is kept running by computers all over the world. In order to incentivize those who incur the computational costs of securing the network by validating transactions, there is a reward that is given to the computer that was able to create the latest block on the chain. Every two and a half minutes, on average, a new block is added to the Litecoin Blockchain with the latest transactions processed by the network, and the computer that generated this block is currently awarded 6.25 LTC, which was reduced by 50%, from 12.5 LTC, in August 2023. Due to the nature of the algorithm for block generation, this process (generating a “proof-of-work”) is guaranteed to be random. Over time, rewards are expected to be proportionate to the computational power of each machine.
The process by which LTC is “mined” results in new blocks being added to the Litecoin Blockchain and new LTC tokens being issued to the miners. Computers on the Litecoin Network engage in a set of prescribed complex mathematical calculations in order to add a block to the Litecoin Blockchain and thereby confirm LTC transactions included in that block's data.
To begin mining, a user can download and run Litecoin Network mining software, which turns the user's computer into a “node” on the Litecoin Network that validates blocks. Each block contains the details of some or all of the most recent transactions that are not memorialized in prior blocks, as well as a record of the award of LTC to the miner who added the new block. Each unique block can be solved and added to the Litecoin Blockchain by only one miner. Therefore, all individual miners and mining pools on the Litecoin Network are engaged in a competitive process of constantly increasing their computing power to improve their likelihood of solving for new blocks. As more miners join the Litecoin Network and its processing power increases, the Litecoin Network adjusts the complexity of the block-solving equation to maintain a predetermined pace of adding a new block to the Litecoin Blockchain approximately every two and a half minutes. A miner's proposed block is added to the Litecoin Blockchain once a majority of the nodes on the Litecoin Network confirms the miner's work. Miners that are successful in adding a block to the Litecoin Blockchain are automatically awarded LTC for their effort and may also receive transaction fees paid by transferors whose transactions are recorded in the block. This reward system is the method by which new LTC enter into circulation to the public.
The Litecoin Network is designed in such a way that the reward for adding new blocks to the Litecoin Blockchain decreases over time. Once new LTC tokens are no longer awarded for adding a new block, miners will only have transaction fees to incentivize them, and as a result, it is expected that miners will need to be better compensated with higher transaction fees to ensure that there is adequate incentive for them to continue mining.
The Litecoin Network is structured to allow a maximum of 84 million LTC to be created, which are mined over time with the creation of each new block. The supply of new LTC is mathematically controlled so that the number of LTC grows at a limited rate pursuant to a pre-set schedule. The number of LTC awarded for solving a new block is automatically halved after every 840,000 blocks are added to the Litecoin Blockchain. Currently, the fixed reward for solving a new block is 6.25 LTC per block, and this is expected to decrease by half to become 3.125 LTC after the next 840,000 blocks since the last reward reduction have entered the Litecoin Network, which is expected to be approximately July 2027. This deliberately controlled rate of LTC creation means that the number of LTC in existence will increase at a controlled rate until the number of LTC in existence reaches 84 million LTC.
As of September 30, 2024, approximately 75.0 million LTC were outstanding, and estimates of when the 84 million LTC limitation will be reached range from at or near the year 2140.
The Litecoin Network is an open source project with no official developer or group of developers that controls it. However, the Litecoin Network's development has historically been overseen by a core group of developers. The core developers are able to access, and can alter, the Litecoin Network source code and, as a result, they are responsible for quasi-official releases of updates and other changes to the Litecoin Network's source code.
The release of updates to the Litecoin Network's source code does not guarantee that the updates will be automatically adopted. Users and miners must accept any changes made to the Litecoin source code by downloading the proposed modification of the Litecoin Network's source code. A modification of the Litecoin Network's source code is effective only with respect to the Litecoin users and
Core development of the Litecoin Network source code has increasingly focused on modifications of the Litecoin Network protocol to increase speed and scalability and also allow for non-financial, next generation uses. The Trust's activities will not directly relate to such projects, though such projects may utilize LTC as tokens for the facilitation of their non-financial uses, thereby potentially increasing demand for LTC and the utility of the Litecoin Network as a whole. Conversely, projects that operate and are built within the Litecoin Blockchain may increase the data flow on the Litecoin Network and could either “bloat” the size of the Litecoin Blockchain or slow confirmation times. At this time, such projects remain in early stages and have not been materially integrated into the Litecoin Blockchain or the Litecoin Network.
In May 2022, a Litecoin Network upgrade incorporated MimbleWimble, an additional encryption feature. MimbleWimble serves two purposes: (i) concealing the transacted amount of Litecoin and (ii) detecting fraudulent activity if the transaction amount were changed while being processed.
Digital assets and digital asset transactions are recorded and validated on blockchains, the public transaction ledgers of a digital asset network. Each digital asset blockchain serves as a record of ownership for all of the units of such digital asset, even in the case of certain privacy-preserving digital assets, where the transactions themselves are not publicly viewable. All digital assets recorded on a blockchain are associated with a public blockchain address, also referred to as a digital wallet. Digital assets held at a particular public blockchain address may be accessed and transferred using a corresponding private key.
Public addresses and their corresponding private keys are generated by the Custodian in secret key generation ceremonies at secure locations inside faraday cages, which are enclosures used to block electromagnetic fields and thus mitigate against attacks. The Custodian uses quantum random number generators to generate the public and private key pairs.
Once generated, private keys are encrypted, separated into “shards,” and then further encrypted. After the key generation ceremony, all materials used to generate private keys, including computers, are destroyed. All key generation ceremonies are performed offline. No party other than the Custodian (including the Trust itself) has access to the private key shards of the Trust.
Private key shards are distributed geographically in secure vaults around the world, including in the United States. The locations of the secure vaults may change regularly and are kept confidential by the Custodian for security purposes.
The “Digital Asset Account” is a segregated custody account controlled and secured by the Custodian to store private keys, which allows for the transfer of ownership or control of the Trust's LTC on the Trust's behalf. The Digital Asset Account uses offline storage, or “cold,” mechanisms to secure the Trust's private keys. The term cold storage refers to a safeguarding method by which the private keys corresponding to digital assets are disconnected and/or deleted entirely from the internet. Cold storage of private keys may involve keeping such keys on a non-networked (or “air-gapped”) computer or electronic device or storing the private keys on a storage device (for example, a USB thumb drive) or printed medium (for example, papyrus, paper, or a metallic object). A digital wallet may receive deposits of digital assets but may not send digital assets without use of the digital assets' corresponding private keys. In order to send digital assets from a digital wallet in which the private keys are kept in cold storage, either the private keys must be retrieved from cold storage and entered into an online, or “hot,” digital asset software program to sign the transaction, or the unsigned transaction must be transferred to the cold server in which the private keys are held for signature by the private keys and then transferred back to the online digital asset software program. At that point, the user of the digital wallet can transfer its digital assets.
The Custodian is the custodian of the Trust's private keys (which, as noted above, facilitate the transfer of ownership or control of the Trust's LTC) in accordance with the terms and provisions of the custodian agreement by and between the Custodian, the Sponsor and the Trust (the “Custodian Agreement”). Transfers from the Digital Asset Account require certain security procedures, including, but not limited to, multiple encrypted private key shards, usernames, passwords and 2-step verification. Multiple private key shards held by the Custodian must be combined to reconstitute the private key to sign any transaction in order to transfer the Trust's assets. Private key shards are distributed geographically in secure vaults around the world, including in the United States.
As a result, if any one secure vault is ever compromised, this event will have no impact on the ability of the Trust to access its assets, other than a possible delay in operations, while one or more of the other secure vaults is used instead. These security procedures are intended to remove single points of failure in the protection of the Trust's assets.
Transfers of LTC to the Digital Asset Account will be available to the Trust once processed on the Blockchain.
Subject to obtaining regulatory approval to operate a redemption program and authorization of the Sponsor, the process of accessing and withdrawing LTC from the Trust to redeem a Basket by an Authorized Participant will follow the same general procedure as transferring LTC to the Trust to create a Basket by an Authorized Participant, only in reverse.
The Sponsor will maintain ownership and control of the Trust's LTC in a manner consistent with good delivery requirements for spot commodity transactions.
The value of LTC is determined by the value that various market participants place on LTC through their transactions. The most common means of determining the value of a LTC is by surveying one or more Digital Asset Trading Platforms where LTC is traded publicly and transparently (
On each online Digital Asset Trading Platform, LTC is traded with publicly disclosed valuations for each executed trade, measured by one or more fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar or euro or by the widely used cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Over-the-counter dealers or market makers do not typically disclose their trade data.
As of September 30, 2024, the Digital Asset Trading Platforms included in the Index were Coinbase, Crypto.com, LMAX Digital, and Kraken. As further described below, the Sponsors and the Trust reasonably believe each of these Digital Asset Trading Platforms are in material compliance with applicable U.S. federal and state licensing requirements and maintain practices and policies designed to comply with anti-money laundering (“AML”) and know-your-customer (“KYC”) regulations.
Currently, there are several Digital Asset Trading Platforms operating worldwide and online Digital Asset Trading Platforms represent a substantial percentage of LTC buying and selling activity and provide the most data with respect to prevailing valuations of LTC. These trading platforms include established trading platforms such as trading platforms included in the Index which provide a number of options for buying and selling LTC. The below table reflects the trading volume in LTC and market share of the LTC-U.S. dollar trading pairs of each of the Digital Asset Trading Platforms included in the Index as of September 30, 2024, (collectively, “Constituent Trading Platforms”) using data since the inception of the Trust's operations:
All networked systems are vulnerable to various kinds of attacks. As with any computer network, the Litecoin Network contains certain flaws. For example, the Litecoin Network is currently vulnerable to a “51% attack” where, if a mining pool were to gain control of more than 50% of the hash rate for a digital asset, a malicious actor would be able to gain full control of the network and the ability to manipulate the Litecoin Blockchain. As of September 30, 2024, the top three largest mining pools controlled over 50% of the hash rate of the Litecoin Network.
In addition, many digital asset networks have been subjected to a number of denial of service attacks, which has led to temporary delays in block creation and in the transfer of LTC. Any similar attacks on the Litecoin Network that impact the ability to transfer LTC could have a material adverse effect on the price of LTC and the value of the Shares.
The Index is a U.S. dollar-denominated composite reference rate for the price of LTC. The Index is designed to (1) mitigate the effects of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity from impacting the LTC reference rate, (2) provide a real-time, volume-weighted fair value of LTC and (3) appropriately handle and adjust for non-market related events.
The Index Price is determined by the Index Provider through a process in which trade data is cleansed and compiled in such a manner as to algorithmically reduce the impact of anomalistic or manipulative trading. This is accomplished by adjusting the weight of each data input based on price deviation relative to the observable set, as well as recent and long-term trading volume at each venue relative to the observable set.
The value of the Index is calculated and disseminated on a 24-hour basis and will be available on a continuous basis.
According to the Annual Report, the Digital Asset Trading Platforms that are included in the Index are selected by the Index Provider utilizing a methodology that is guided by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (“IOSCO”) principles for financial benchmarks. For a trading platform to become a Constituent Trading Platform, it must satisfy each of the criteria listed below (the “Inclusion Criteria”):
• Sufficient USD or USDC liquidity relative to the size of the listed assets;
• No evidence in the past 12 months of trading restrictions on individuals or entities that would otherwise meet the trading platform's eligibility requirements to trade;
• No evidence in the past 12 months of undisclosed restrictions on deposits or withdrawals from user accounts;
• Real-time price discovery;
• Limited or no capital controls;
• Transparent ownership including a publicly-known ownership entity;
• Publicly available language and policies addressing legal and regulatory compliance in the U.S., including KYC, AML and other policies designed to comply with relevant regulations that might apply to it;
• Be a trading platform that is licensed and able to service investors in one or more of the following jurisdictions:
○ United States
○ United Kingdom
○ European Union
○ Hong Kong
○ Singapore; and
• Offer programmatic spot trading of the trading pair
A Digital Asset Trading Platform is removed as a Constituent Trading Platform when it no longer satisfies the Inclusion Criteria. The Index Provider does not currently include data from over-the-counter markets or derivatives platforms among the Constituent Trading Platforms. According to the Annual Report, over-the-counter data is not currently included because of the potential for trades to include a significant premium or discount paid for larger liquidity, which creates an uneven comparison relative to more active markets. There is also a higher potential for over-the-counter transactions to not be arms-length, and thus not be representative of a true market price.
The Index Provider and the Sponsor have entered into the index license agreement, dated as of February 1, 2022 (as amended, the “Index License Agreement”), governing the Sponsor's use of the Index Price.
The Index Provider may change the trading venues that are used to calculate the Index or otherwise change the way in which the Index is calculated at any time. For example, the Index Provider has scheduled quarterly reviews in which it may add or remove Constituent Trading Platforms that satisfy or fail the Inclusion Criteria. The Index Provider does not have any obligation to consider the interests of the Sponsor, the Trust, the shareholders, or anyone else in connection with such changes. While the Index Provider is not required to publicize or explain the changes or to alert the Sponsor to such changes, it has historically notified the Trust (and other subscribers to the Index) of any material changes to the Constituent Trading Platforms, including any additions or removals, contemporaneous with its issuance of press releases in connection with the same. The Sponsor will notify investors of any such material event by filing a current report on Form 8-K. Although the Index methodology is designed to operate without any manual intervention, rare events would justify manual intervention. Intervention of this kind would be in response to non-market-related events, such as the halting of deposits or withdrawals of funds on a Digital Asset Trading Platform, the unannounced closure of operations on a Digital Asset Trading Platform, insolvency or the compromise of user funds. In the event that such an intervention is necessary, the Index Provider would issue a public announcement through its website, API and other established communication channels with its clients.
The Index applies an algorithm to the price of LTC on the Constituent Trading Platforms calculated on a per second basis over a 24-hour period. The Index's algorithm is expected to reflect a four-pronged methodology to calculate the Index Price from the Constituent Trading Platforms:
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The Index Provider re-evaluates the weighting algorithm on a periodic basis, but maintains discretion to change the way in which an Index Price is calculated based on its periodic review or in extreme circumstances and does not make the exact methodology to calculate the Index Price publicly available. Nonetheless, the Sponsors believe that the Index is designed to limit exposure to trading or price distortion of any individual Digital Asset Trading Platform that experiences periods of unusual activity or limited liquidity by discounting, in real-time, anomalous price movements at individual Digital Asset Trading Platforms.
The Sponsors believe the Index Provider's selection process for Constituent Trading Platforms as well as the methodology of the Index Price's algorithm provides a more accurate picture of LTC price movements than a simple average of Digital Asset Trading Platform spot prices, and that the weighting of LTC prices on the Constituent Trading Platforms limits the
If the Index Price becomes unavailable, or if the Sponsor determines in good faith that such Index Price does not reflect an accurate price for LTC, then the Sponsor will, on a best efforts basis, contact the Index Provider to obtain the Index Price directly from the Index Provider. If after such contact such Index Price remains unavailable or the Sponsor continues to believe in good faith that such Index Price does not reflect an accurate price for LTC, then the Sponsor will employ a cascading set of rules to determine the Index Price, as described below in “Determination of the Index Price When Index Price is Unavailable.”
The Trust values its LTC for operational purposes by reference to the Index Price. The Index Price is the value of LTC as represented by the Index, calculated at 4:00 p.m., New York time, on each business day.
For the purposes of illustration, outlined below are examples of how the attributes that impact weighting and adjustments in the aforementioned methodology may be utilized to generate the Index Price for a digital asset. For example, Constituent Trading Platforms used to calculate the Index Price of the digital asset may include trading platforms such as Coinbase, Kraken, LMAX Digital, and Crypto.com.
The Index Price algorithm, as described above, accounts for manipulation at the outset by only including data from executed trades on Constituent Trading Platforms that charge trading fees. Then, the below-listed elements may impact the weighting of the Constituent Trading Platforms on the Index Price as follows:
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•
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The Sponsor uses the following cascading set of rules to calculate the Index Price when the Index Price is unavailable.
1. Index Price = The price set by the Index as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the valuation date.
2. Index Price = The price set by Coin Metrics Real-Time Rate (the “Secondary Index”) as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the valuation date (the “Secondary Index Price”). The Secondary Index Price is a real-time reference rate price, calculated using trade data from constituent markets selected by Coin Metrics, Inc. (the “Secondary Index Provider”). The Secondary Index Price is calculated by applying weighted-median techniques to such trade data where half the weight is derived from the trading volume on each constituent market and half is derived from inverse price variance, where a constituent market with high price variance as a result of outliers or market anomalies compared to other constituent markets is assigned a smaller weight. If the Secondary Index becomes unavailable, or if the Sponsor determines in good faith that the Secondary Index does not reflect an accurate price, then the Sponsor will, on a best efforts basis, contact the Secondary Index Provider to obtain the Secondary Index Price directly from the Secondary Index Provider. If after such contact the Secondary Index remains unavailable or the Sponsor continues to believe in good faith that the Secondary Index does not reflect an accurate price, then the Sponsor will employ the next rule to determine the Index Price. There are no predefined criteria to make a good faith assessment and it will be made by the Sponsor in its sole discretion.
3. Index Price = The price set by the Trust's principal market (as defined in the Annual Report) (the “Tertiary Pricing Option”) as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the valuation date. The Tertiary Pricing Option is a spot price derived from the principal market's public data feed that is believed to be consistently publishing pricing information as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, and is provided to the Sponsor via an application programming interface. If the Tertiary Pricing Option becomes unavailable, or if the Sponsor determines in good faith that the Tertiary Pricing Option does not reflect an accurate price, then the Sponsor will, on a best efforts basis, contact the Tertiary Pricing Provider to obtain the Tertiary Pricing Option directly from the Tertiary Pricing Provider. If after such contact the Tertiary Pricing Option remains unavailable after such contact or the Sponsor continues to believe in good faith that the Tertiary Pricing Option does not reflect an accurate price, then the Sponsor will employ the next rule to determine the Index Price. There are no predefined criteria to make a good faith assessment and it will be made by the Sponsor in its sole discretion.
4. Index Price = The Sponsor will use its best judgment to determine a good faith estimate of the Index Price. There are no predefined criteria to make a good faith assessment and it will be made by the Sponsor in its sole discretion.
In the event of a fork, the Index Provider may calculate the Index Price based on a digital asset that the Sponsor does not believe to be an appropriate asset of the Trust (
The Sponsor may, in its sole discretion, select a different index provider, select a different index price provided by the Index Provider, calculate the Index Price by using the cascading set of rules set forth above, or change the cascading set of rules set forth above at any time.
The Sponsors believe the Commission should approve the listing and trading of Shares of the Trust. In the context of prior spot digital asset ETP proposal disapproval orders for Bitcoin and Ethereum, the Commission expressed concerns about the underlying Digital Asset Market due to the potential for fraud and manipulation and has outlined the reasons why such ETP proposals have been unable to satisfy these concerns.
In the Prior Spot Digital Asset ETP Disapproval Orders, the Commission outlined that a proposal relating to a digital asset-based ETP could satisfy its concerns regarding potential for fraud and manipulation by demonstrating:
(1)
(2)
(3)
As described below, the Sponsors believe the structure and operation of the Trust are designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices, to protect investors and the public interest, and to respond to the specific concerns that the Commission may have with respect to potential fraud and manipulation in the context of an LTC-based ETP.
In the Prior Spot Digital Asset ETP Disapproval Orders, the Commission disagreed with the proposition that a digital asset's fungibility, transportability and exchange tradability combine to provide unique protections against, and allow such digital asset to be uniquely resistant to, attempts at price manipulation. The Commission reached its conclusion based on concessions by one issuer that 95% of the reported trading in the underlying digital asset at issue, Bitcoin, is “fake” or non-economic, effectively admitting that the properties of Bitcoin do not make it inherently resistant to manipulation. Such issuer's concessions were further compounded by evidence of potential and actual fraud and manipulation in the historical trading of Bitcoin on certain marketplaces such as (1) “wash” trading, (2) trading based on material, non-public information, including the dissemination of false and misleading information, (3) manipulative activity involving Tether, and (4) fraud and manipulation.
The Sponsors acknowledge the possibility that fraud and manipulation may exist in commodity markets and that digital asset trading
Further, the Sponsors believe that LTC in particular is arguably less susceptible to manipulation than other commodities that underlie ETPs; there may be inside information relating to the supply of the physical commodity such as the discovery of new sources of supply or significant disruptions at mining facilities that supply the commodity that simply are inapplicable to LTC. The Sponsors also believe that the fragmentation across LTC trading platforms, the relatively slow speed of transactions, and the capital necessary to maintain a significant presence on each trading platform make manipulation of LTC prices through continuous trading activity unlikely. Moreover, the linkage between the LTC markets and the presence of arbitrageurs in those markets means that the manipulation of the price of LTC price on any single venue would require manipulation of the global LTC price in order to be effective. Arbitrageurs must have funds distributed across multiple LTC trading platforms in order to take advantage of temporary price dislocations, thereby making it unlikely that there will be strong concentration of funds on any particular LTC trading platform. As a result, the potential for manipulation on a particular LTC trading platform would require overcoming the liquidity supply of such arbitrageurs who are effectively eliminating any cross-market pricing differences. For all of these reasons, the Sponsors believe that LTC is not particularly susceptible to manipulation, especially as compared to other approved ETP reference assets.
The Commission has recognized that a listing exchange could demonstrate that other means to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices are sufficient to justify dispensing with the requisite surveillance-sharing agreement.
The Sponsors believe the Index represents a novel means to prevent fraud and manipulation from impacting a reference price for LTC and that it offers protections beyond those that exist in traditional commodity markets or equity markets. The Index operates materially similarly to CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX). Specifically, digital assets, such as LTC, are novel and exist outside traditional commodity markets. It therefore stands to reason that the methods by which they trade will be novel and that the market for digital assets like LTC will have different attributes than traditional commodity markets. Digital assets like LTC were only introduced within the past decade, twenty years after the first U.S. ETFs were offered
The Trust has priced its Shares consistently for more than six years based on the Index. The Sponsors believe the Trust's use of the Index specifically addresses the Commission's concerns in that the Index serves as an alternative means to prevent fraud and manipulation. Specifically, the Index can (i) mitigate the effects of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity on the LTC reference rate, (ii) provide a real-time, volume-weighted fair value of LTC and (iii) appropriately handle and adjust for non-market related events.
As described in more detail below, the Sponsors believe that the Index accomplishes those objectives in the following ways:
1. The Index tracks the Digital Asset Trading Platform Market price through trading activity at “U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms”;
“Non-U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms” are all other trading platforms in the Digital Asset Trading Platform Market.
As of the date of this filing, the U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms that the Index Provider considered for inclusion in the Index were Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Kraken and LMAX Digital.
From these U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms, the Index Provider then applies additional Inclusion Criteria to determine the Constituent Trading Platforms.
2. The Index mitigates the impact of instances of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity in real-time through systematic adjustments;
3. The Index is constructed and maintained by an expert third-party index provider, allowing for prudent handling of non-market-related events; and
4. The Index mitigates the impact of instances of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity concentrated on any one specific trading platform through a cross-trading platform composite index rate.
To reduce the risk of fraud, manipulation, and other anomalous trading activity from impacting the Index, only U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms are eligible to be included in the Index.
The Index maintains a minimum number of three trading platforms and a
U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms possess safeguards that protect against fraud and manipulation. For example, U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms regulated by the NYDFS under the BitLicense program have regulatory requirements to implement measures designed to effectively detect, prevent, and respond to fraud, attempted fraud, market manipulation, and similar wrongdoing, and to monitor, control, investigate and report back to the NYDFS regarding any wrongdoing.
• Submission of audited financial statements including income statements, statements of assets/liabilities, insurance, and banking;
• Compliance with capitalization requirements set at NYDFS's discretion;
• Prohibitions against the sale or encumbrance to protect full reserves of custodian assets;
• Fingerprints and photographs of employees with access to customer funds;
• Retention of a qualified Chief Information Security Officer and annual penetration testing/audits;
• Documented business continuity and disaster recovery plan, independently tested annually; and
• Participation in an independent exam by NYDFS.
Other U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms have voluntarily implemented measures to protect against common forms of market manipulation.
Furthermore, all U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms are considered MSBs that are subject to FinCEN's federal and state reporting requirements that provide additional safeguards. For example, unscrupulous traders may be less likely to engage in fraudulent or manipulative acts and practices on trading platforms that (1) report suspicious activity to FinCEN as money services businesses, (2) report to state regulators as money transmitters, and/or (3) require customer identification through KYC procedures. U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms are required to:
• Identify people with ownership stakes or controlling roles in the MSB;
• Establish a formal Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policy in place with documentation, training, independent review, and a named compliance officer;
• Implement strict customer identification and verification policies and procedures;
• File Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) for suspicious customer transactions;
• File Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) for cash-in or cash-out transactions greater than $10,000; and
• Maintain a five-year record of currency exchanges greater than $1,000 and money transfers greater than $3,000.
The Sponsors acknowledge that there are substantial differences between FinCEN and New York state regulations and the Commission's regulation of the national securities exchanges.
The Index is calculated once every second according to a systematic methodology that relies on observed trading activity on the Constituent Trading Platforms. While the precise methodology underlying the Index is currently proprietary, the key elements of the Index are outlined below:
•
•
•
•
The Index Provider reviews and periodically updates the Constituent Trading Platforms included in the Index by utilizing a methodology that is guided by the IOSCO principles for financial benchmarks.
The Index Provider reviews and periodically updates which trading platforms are included in the Index by utilizing a methodology that is guided by the IOSCO principles for financial benchmarks.
According to the Index methodology, for a trading platform to become a Constituent Trading Platform, it must satisfy each of the following Inclusion Criteria:
• Sufficient USD or USDC liquidity relative to the size of the listed assets;
• No evidence in the past 12 months of trading restrictions on individuals or entities that would otherwise meet the trading platform's eligibility requirements to trade;
• No evidence in the past 12 months of undisclosed restrictions on deposits or withdrawals from user accounts;
• Real-time price discovery;
• Limited or no capital controls;
• Transparent ownership including a publicly-known ownership entity;
• Publicly available language and policies addressing legal and regulatory compliance in the U.S., including KYC, AML and other policies designed to comply with relevant regulations that might apply to it;
• Be a trading platform that is licensed and able to service investors in one or more of the following jurisdictions:
○ United States,
○ United Kingdom,
○ European Union,
○ Hong Kong,
○ Singapore; and
• Offer programmatic spot trading of the trading pair and reliably publish trade prices and volumes on a real-time basis through Rest and Websocket APIs.
Although the Index methodology is designed to operate without any human interference, rare events would justify manual intervention. Manual intervention would only be in response to “non-market-related events” (
The Index is based on the price and volume data of multiple U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms that satisfy the Index Provider's Inclusion Criteria. By referencing multiple trading venues and weighting them based on trade activity, the impact of any potential fraud, manipulation, or anomalous trading activity occurring on any single venue is reduced. Specifically, the effects of fraud, manipulation, or anomalous trading activity occurring on any single venue are de-weighted and consequently diluted by non-anomalous trading activity from other Constituent Trading Platforms.
Although the Index is designed to accurately capture the market price of LTC, third parties may be able to purchase and sell LTC on public or private markets not included among the constituent Digital Asset Trading Platforms of the Index, and such transactions may take place at prices materially higher or lower than the Index Price. Moreover, there may be variances in the prices of LTC on the various Digital Asset Trading Platforms, including as a result of differences in fee structures or administrative procedures on different Digital Asset Trading Platforms. For example, based on data provided by the Index Provider, on any given day during the twelve months ended September 30, 2024, the maximum differential between the 4:00 p.m., New York time spot price of any single Digital Asset Trading Platform included in the Index and the Index Price was 2.27% and the average of the maximum differentials of the 4:00 p.m., New York time spot price of each Digital Asset Trading Platform included in the Index and the Index Price was 0.85%. During this same period, the average differential between the 4:00 p.m., New York time spot prices of all the Digital Asset Trading Platforms included in the Index and the Index Price was 0.004%. All Digital Asset Trading Platforms that were included in the Index throughout the period were considered in this analysis.
Since March 1, 2018, the Trust has consistently priced its Shares at 4:00 p.m., E.T. based on the Index Price. While that pricing would be known to the market, the Sponsors believe that, even if efforts to manipulate the price of LTC at 4:00 p.m., E.T. were successful on any trading platform, such activity would have had a negligible effect on the pricing of the Trust, due to the controls embedded in the structure of the Index.
Accordingly, the Sponsors believe that the Index has proven its ability to (i) mitigate the effects of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity on the LTC reference rate, (ii) provide a real-time, volume-weighted fair value of LTC and (iii) appropriately handle and adjust for non-market related events. For these reasons, the Sponsors believe that the Index represents an effective alternative means to prevent fraud and manipulation and the Trust's reliance on the Index addresses the Commission's concerns with respect to potential fraud and manipulation.
In summary, the Sponsors believe that the foregoing addresses concerns the Commission may have with respect to LTC-based ETPs, based on the Commission's articulated concerns with respect to potential fraud and manipulation in Bitcoin-based ETPs. Specifically, the Sponsors believe that, although LTC is not itself inherently resistant to fraud and manipulation, the Index represents an effective means to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices. As discussed above, the Trust has used the Index to price the Shares for more than six years, and the Index has proven its ability to (i) mitigate the effects of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity on the LTC reference rate, (ii) provide a real-time, volume-weighted fair value of LTC and (iii) appropriately handle and adjust for non-market related events.
Authorized Participants may submit orders to create or redeem Shares under procedures for “Cash Orders.”
The Authorized Participants will deliver only cash to create Shares and will receive only cash when redeeming Shares. Further, Authorized Participants will not directly or indirectly purchase, hold, deliver, or receive LTC as part of the creation or redemption process or otherwise direct the Trust or a third party with respect to purchasing, holding, delivering, or receiving LTC as part of the creation or redemption process.
The Trust will create Shares by receiving LTC from a third party that is not the Authorized Participant, and the Trust, or an affiliate of the Trust (and in any event not the Authorized Participant), is responsible for selecting the third party to deliver the LTC. Further, the third party will not be acting as an agent of the Authorized Participant with respect to the delivery of the LTC to the Trust nor acting at the direction of the Authorized Participant with respect to the delivery of the LTC to the Trust. The Trust will redeem Shares by delivering LTC to a third party that is not the Authorized Participant, and the Trust, or an affiliate of the Trust (and in any event not the Authorized Participant), is responsible for selecting the third party to receive the LTC. Further, the third party will not be acting as an agent of the Authorized Participant with respect to the receipt of the LTC from the Trust nor acting at the direction of the Authorized Participant with respect to the receipt of the LTC from the Trust.
Cash Orders are made through the participation of a Liquidity
According to the Registration Statement, the Trust creates Baskets (as described below) of Shares only upon receipt of LTC and redeems Shares only by distributing LTC. “Authorized Participants” are the only persons that may place orders to create and redeem Baskets. Each Authorized Participant must (i) be a registered broker-dealer and (ii) enter into an agreement with the Sponsor and Transfer Agent that provides the procedures for the creation and redemption of Baskets and for the delivery of LTC required for the creation and redemption of Baskets via a Liquidity Provider (each, a “Participant Agreement”). An Authorized Participant may act for its own account or as agent for broker-dealers, custodians and other securities market participants that wish to create or redeem Baskets. Shareholders who are not Authorized Participants will only be able to create or redeem their Shares through an Authorized Participant.
The Trust issues Shares to and redeems Shares from Authorized Participants on an ongoing basis, but only in one or more “Baskets” (with a Basket being a block of 10,000 Shares). The Trust will not issue fractions of a Basket.
The creation and redemption of Baskets will be made only in exchange for the delivery to the Trust, or the distribution by the Trust, of the number of whole and fractional LTC represented by each Basket being created or redeemed, which is determined by dividing (x) the number of LTC owned by the Trust at 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the trade date of a creation or redemption order, after deducting the number of LTC representing the U.S. dollar value of accrued but unpaid fees and expenses of the Trust (converted using the Index Price at such time, and carried to the eighth decimal place), by (y) the number of Shares outstanding at such time (with the quotient so obtained calculated to one one-hundred-millionth of one LTC (
The creation of Baskets requires the delivery by the Authorized Participant of a cash amount equivalent to the Total Basket Amount and the redemption of Baskets requires the distribution to the Authorized Participant of a cash amount equivalent to the Total Basket Amount.
Although the Trust creates Baskets only upon the receipt of LTC, and redeems Baskets only by distributing LTC, an Authorized Participant will submit Cash Orders, pursuant to which the Authorized Participant will deposit cash with, or accept cash from, the Transfer Agent in connection with the creation and redemption of Baskets.
Cash Orders will be facilitated by the Transfer Agent and Liquidity Engager, acting other than in its capacity as Sponsor. On an order-by-order basis, the Liquidity Engager will engage one or more Liquidity Providers to obtain or receive LTC in exchange for cash in connection with such order, as described in more detail below.
Unless the Sponsor requires that a Cash Order be effected at actual execution prices (an “Actual Execution Cash Order”),
Alternatively, the Sponsor may require that a Cash Order be effected as an Actual Execution Cash Order, in its sole discretion based on market conditions and other factors existing at the time of such Cash Order, and under such circumstances, any price differential of LTC between the trade date and the settlement date will be borne solely by the Authorized Participant until such LTC have been received or liquidated by the Trust.
In the case of creations, to transfer the Total Basket Amount to the Trust's Digital Asset Account, the Liquidity Provider will transfer LTC to one of the public key addresses associated with the Digital Asset Account and as provided by the Sponsor. In the case of redemptions, the same procedure is conducted, but in reverse, using the public key addresses associated with the wallet of the Liquidity Provider and as provided by such party. All such transactions will be conducted on the Litecoin Blockchain and parties
Authorized Participants do not pay a transaction fee to the Trust in connection with the creation or redemption of Baskets, but there may be transaction fees associated with the validation of the transfer of LTC by the Litecoin Network, which will be paid by the Custodian in the case of redemptions and the Authorized Participant or the Liquidity Provider in the case of creations. Service providers may charge Authorized Participants administrative fees for order placement and other services related to creation of Baskets. As discussed above, Authorized Participants will also pay the Variable Fee in connection with Variable Fee Cash Orders. Under certain circumstances, Authorized Participants may also be required to deposit additional cash in the Cash Account, or be entitled to receive excess cash from the Cash Account, in connection with creations and redemptions pursuant to Actual Execution Cash Orders. Authorized Participants will receive no fees, commissions or other form of compensation or inducement of any kind from either the Sponsor or the Trust and no such person has any obligation or responsibility to the Sponsor or the Trust to effect any sale or resale of Shares.
The following is a summary of the procedures for the creation and redemption of Baskets.
On any business day, an Authorized Participant may place an order with the Transfer Agent to create one or more Baskets.
Cash Orders for creation must be placed with the Transfer Agent no later than 1:59:59 p.m., New York time.
The Sponsor may in its sole discretion limit the number of Shares created pursuant to Cash Orders on any specified day without notice to the Authorized Participants and may direct the Marketing Agent to reject any Cash Orders in excess of such capped amount. In exercising its discretion to limit the number of Shares created pursuant to Cash Orders, the Sponsor expects to take into consideration a number of factors, including the availability of Liquidity Providers to facilitate Cash Orders and the cost of processing Cash Orders.
Creations under Cash Orders will take place as follows, where “T” is the trade date and each day in the sequence must be a business day. Before a creation order is placed, the Sponsor determines if such creation order will be a Variable Fee Cash Order or an Actual Execution Cash Order, which determination is communicated to the Authorized Participant.
The procedures by which an Authorized Participant can redeem one or more Baskets mirror the procedures for the creation of Baskets. On any business day, an Authorized Participant may place a redemption order specifying the number of Baskets to be redeemed.
The redemption of Shares pursuant to Cash Orders will only take place if approved by the Sponsor in writing, in its sole discretion and on a case-by-case basis. In exercising its discretion to approve the redemption of Shares pursuant to Cash Orders, the Sponsor expects to take into consideration a number of factors, including the availability of Liquidity Providers to facilitate Cash Orders and the cost of processing Cash Orders.
Cash Orders for redemption must be placed no later than 1:59:59 p.m., New York time on each business day. The Authorized Participants may only redeem Baskets and cannot redeem any Shares in an amount less than a Basket.
Redemptions under Cash Orders will take place as follows, where “T” is the trade date and each day in the sequence must be a business day. Before a redemption order is placed, the Sponsor determines if such redemption order will be a Variable Fee Cash Order or an Actual Execution Cash Order, which determination is communicated to the Authorized Participant.
The creation or redemption of Shares may be suspended generally, or refused with respect to particular requested creations or redemptions, during any period when the transfer books of the Transfer Agent are closed or if circumstances outside the control of the Sponsor or its delegates make it for all practicable purposes not feasible to process creation orders or redemption orders or for any other reason at any time or from time to time.
The Trust's website (
One or more major market data vendors, will provide an intra-day indicative value (“IIV”) per Share updated every 15 seconds, as calculated by the Exchange or a third party financial data provider during the Exchange's Core Trading Session (9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., E.T.). The IIV will be calculated using the same methodology as the NAV per Share of the Trust (as described above), specifically by using the prior day's closing NAV per Share as a base and updating that value during the NYSE Arca Core Trading Session to reflect changes in the value of the Index during the trading day.
The IIV disseminated during the NYSE Arca Core Trading Session should not be viewed as an actual real-time update of the NAV per Share, which will be calculated only once at the end of each trading day. The IIV will be widely disseminated on a per Share basis every 15 seconds during the NYSE Arca Core Trading Session by one or more major market data vendors. In addition, the IIV will be available through on-line information services.
The NAV for the Trust will be calculated by the Sponsor once a day and will be disseminated daily to all market participants at the same time. To the extent that the Sponsor has utilized the cascading set of rules described in “Index Price” above, the Trust's website will note the valuation methodology used and the price per LTC resulting from such calculation. Quotation and last-sale information regarding the Shares will be disseminated through the facilities of the Consolidated Tape Association (“CTA”).
Quotation and last sale information for LTC will be widely disseminated through a variety of major market data vendors, including Bloomberg and Reuters. In addition, real-time price (and volume) data for LTC is available by subscription from Reuters and Bloomberg. The spot price of LTC is available on a 24-hour basis from major market data vendors, including Bloomberg and Reuters. Information relating to trading, including price and volume information, in LTC will be available from major market data vendors and from the trading platforms on which LTC are traded. The normal trading hours for Digital Asset Trading Platforms are 24-hours per day, 365-days per year.
On each business day, the Sponsor will publish the Index Price, the Trust's NAV, and the NAV per Share on the Trust's website as soon as practicable after its determination. If the NAV and NAV per Share have been calculated using a price per LTC other than the Index Price for such Evaluation Time, the publication on the Trust's website will note the valuation methodology used and the price per LTC resulting from such calculation.
The Trust will provide website disclosure of its NAV daily. The website
The value of the Index, as well as additional information regarding the Index, will be available on a continuous basis.
Information regarding market price and trading volume of the Shares will be continually available on a real-time basis throughout the day on brokers' computer screens and other electronic services.
Information regarding the previous day's closing price and trading volume information for the Shares will be published daily in the financial section of newspapers.
The Exchange deems the Shares to be equity securities, thus rendering trading in the Shares subject to the Exchange's existing rules governing the trading of equity securities. Shares will trade on the NYSE Arca Marketplace from 4:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., E.T. in accordance with NYSE Arca Rule 7.34-E (Early, Core, and Late Trading Sessions). The Exchange has appropriate rules to facilitate transactions in the Shares during all trading sessions. As provided in NYSE Arca Rule 7.6-E, the minimum price variation (“MPV”) for quoting and entry of orders in equity securities traded on the NYSE Arca Marketplace is $0.01, with the exception of securities that are priced less than $1.00, for which the MPV for order entry is $0.0001.
The Shares will conform to the initial and continued listing criteria under NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E. The trading of the Shares will be subject to NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E(g), which sets forth certain restrictions on Equity Trading Permit Holders (“ETP Holders”) acting as registered Market Makers in Commodity-Based Trust Shares to facilitate surveillance. The Exchange represents that, for initial and continued listing, the Trust will be in compliance with Rule 10A-3
With respect to trading halts, the Exchange may consider all relevant factors in exercising its discretion to halt or suspend trading in the Shares of the Trust.
The Exchange may halt trading during the day in which an interruption to the dissemination of the IIV or the value of the Index occurs. If the interruption to the dissemination of the IIV or the value of the Index persists past the trading day in which it occurred, the Exchange will halt trading no later than the beginning of the trading day following the interruption. In addition, if the Exchange becomes aware that the NAV per Share is not disseminated to all market participants at the same time, it will halt trading in the Shares until such time as the NAV per Share is available to all market participants.
The Exchange represents that trading in the Shares of the Trust will be subject to the existing trading surveillances administered by the Exchange, as well as cross-market surveillances administered by FINRA on behalf of the Exchange, which are designed to detect violations of Exchange rules and applicable federal securities laws.
The surveillances referred to above generally focus on detecting securities trading outside their normal patterns, which could be indicative of manipulative or other violative activity. When such situations are detected, surveillance analysis follows and investigations are opened, where appropriate, to review the behavior of all relevant parties for all relevant trading violations.
The Exchange or FINRA, on behalf of the Exchange, or both, will communicate as needed regarding trading in the Shares with other markets and other entities that are members of the ISG, and the Exchange or FINRA, on behalf of the Exchange, or both, may obtain trading information regarding trading in the Shares and LTC derivatives from such markets and other entities. In addition, the Exchange may obtain information regarding trading in the Shares and LTC derivatives from markets and other entities that are members of ISG or with which the Exchange has in place a comprehensive surveillance sharing agreement (“CSSA”).
In addition, the Exchange also has a general policy prohibiting the distribution of material, non-public information by its employees.
All statements and representations made in this filing regarding (a) the description of the index, portfolio, or reference assets of the Trust, (b) limitations on index or portfolio holdings or reference assets, or (c) the applicability of Exchange listing rules specified in this rule filing shall constitute continued listing requirements for listing the Shares on the Exchange.
The Sponsor has represented to the Exchange that it will advise the Exchange of any failure by the Trust to comply with the continued listing requirements, and, pursuant to its obligations under Section 19(g)(1) of the Act, the Exchange will monitor for compliance with the continued listing requirements. If the Trust is not in compliance with the applicable listing requirements, the Exchange will commence delisting procedures under NYSE Arca Rule 5.5-E(m).
Prior to the commencement of trading, the Exchange will inform its ETP Holders in an “Information Bulletin” of the special characteristics and risks associated with trading the Shares. Specifically, the Information Bulletin will discuss the following: (1) the procedures for creations of Shares in Baskets; (2) NYSE Arca Rule 9.2-E(a), which imposes a duty of due diligence on its ETP Holders to learn the essential facts relating to every customer prior to trading the Shares; (3) information regarding how the value of the Index and NAV are disseminated; (4) the possibility that trading spreads and the resulting premium or discount on the Shares may widen during the Opening and Late Trading Sessions, when an updated IIV will not be calculated or publicly disseminated; (5) the requirement that members deliver a prospectus to investors purchasing newly issues Shares prior to or concurrently with the confirmation of a transaction; and (6) trading information. The Exchange notes that investors purchasing Shares directly from the Trust will receive a prospectus.
In addition, the Information Bulletin will reference that the Trust is subject to various fees and expenses as described in the Annual Report. The Information Bulletin will disclose that information about the Shares of the Trust is publicly available on the Trust's website.
The Information Bulletin will also discuss any relief, if granted, by the Commission or the staff from any rules under the Act.
The basis under the Act for this proposed rule change is the requirement under Section 6(b)(5)
The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices in that the Shares will be listed and traded on the Exchange pursuant to the initial and continued listing criteria in NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E. The Exchange has in place surveillance procedures that are adequate to properly monitor trading in the Shares in all trading sessions and to deter and detect violations of Exchange rules and applicable federal securities laws. The Exchange or FINRA, on behalf of the Exchange, or both, will communicate as needed regarding trading in the Shares with other markets that are members of the ISG, and the Exchange or FINRA, on behalf of the Exchange, or both, may obtain trading information regarding trading in the Shares from such markets. In addition, the Exchange may obtain information regarding trading in the Shares from markets that are members of ISG or with which the Exchange has in place a CSSA. Also, pursuant to NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E(g), the Exchange is able to obtain information regarding trading in the Shares and the underlying LTC or any LTC derivative through ETP Holders' proprietary trades or customer trades effected through ETP Holders on any relevant market.
The proposed rule change is also designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices because, although the Digital Asset Trading Platform Market is not inherently resistant to fraud and manipulation, the Index serves as a means sufficient to mitigate the impact of instances of fraud and manipulation on a reference price for LTC. Specifically, the Index provides a better benchmark for the price of LTC than the Digital Asset Trading Platform Market price because it (1) tracks the Digital Asset Trading Platform Market price through trading activity at U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms; (2) mitigates the impact of instances of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity in real-time through systematic adjustments; (3) is constructed and maintained by an expert third-party index provider, allowing for prudent handling of non-market-related events; and (4) mitigates the impact of instances of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity concentrated on any one specific trading platform through a cross-trading platform composite index rate. The Trust has used the Index to price the Shares for more than six years, and the Index has proven its ability to (i) mitigate the effects of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity from impacting the LTC reference rate, (ii) provide a real-time, volume-weighted fair value of LTC and (iii) appropriately handle and adjust for non-market related events, such that efforts to manipulate the price of LTC would have had a negligible effect on the pricing of the Trust, due to the controls embedded in the structure of the Index. In addition, certain of the Index's Constituent Trading Platforms also have or have begun to implement market surveillance infrastructure to further detect, prevent, and respond to fraud, attempted fraud, and similar wrongdoing, including market manipulation.
The proposed rule change is designed to promote just and equitable principles of trade and to protect investors and the public interest in that there is a considerable amount of LTC price and market information available on public websites and through professional and subscription services. Investors may obtain, on a 24-hour basis, LTC pricing information based on the spot price for LTC from various financial information service providers. The closing price and settlement prices of LTC are readily available from the Digital Asset Trading Platforms and other publicly available websites. In addition, such prices are published in public sources, or on-line information services such as Bloomberg and Reuters. The NAV per Share will be calculated daily and made available to all market participants at the same time. The Trust will provide website disclosure of its NAV daily. One or more major market data vendors will disseminate for the Trust on a daily basis information with respect to the most recent NAV per Share and Shares outstanding. In addition, if the Exchange becomes aware that the NAV per Share is not disseminated to all market participants at the same time, it will halt trading in the Shares until such
The proposed rule change is designed to perfect the mechanism of a free and open market and, in general, to protect investors and the public interest in that it will facilitate the listing and trading of an additional type of exchange-traded product that will enhance competition among market participants, to the benefit of investors and the marketplace. As noted above, the Exchange has in place surveillance procedures relating to trading in the Shares and may obtain information via ISG from other exchanges that are members of ISG or with which the Exchange has entered into a CSSA. In addition, as noted above, investors will have ready access to information regarding the Trust's NAV, IIV, and quotation and last sale information for the Shares.
The Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will impose any burden on competition that is not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. The Exchange notes that the proposed rule change will facilitate the listing and trading of an additional type of exchange-traded product, and the first such product based on LTC, which will enhance competition among market participants, to the benefit of investors and the marketplace.
No written comments were solicited or received with respect to the proposed rule change.
Within 45 days of the date of publication of this notice in the
(A) by order approve or disapprove the proposed rule change, or
(B) institute proceedings to determine whether the proposed rule change should be disapproved.
Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views and arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed rule change, as modified by Amendment No. 1, is consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
• Use the Commission's internet comment form (
• Send an email to
• Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549-1090.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated authority.
Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission” or “SEC”).
Notice.
Notice of an application under section 6(c) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (“Act”) for an exemption from section 15(a) of the Act, as well as from certain disclosure requirements in rule 20a-1 under the Act, Item 19(a)(3) of Form N-1A, Items 22(c)(1)(ii), 22(c)(1)(iii), 22(c)(8) and 22(c)(9) of Schedule 14A under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and sections 6-07(2)(a), (b), and (c) of Regulation S-X (“Disclosure Requirements”).
The requested exemption would permit Applicants to enter into and materially amend subadvisory agreements with subadvisers without shareholder approval and would grant relief from the Disclosure Requirements as they relate to fees paid to the subadvisers.
Venerable Variable Insurance Trust and Venerable Investment Advisers, LLC.
The application was filed on January 28, 2025, and amended on February 4, 2025.
An order granting the requested relief will be issued unless the Commission
The Commission:
Trace W. Rakestraw, Senior Special Counsel, at (202) 551-6825 (Division of Investment Management, Chief Counsel's Office).
For Applicants' representations, legal analysis, and conditions, please refer to Applicants' application, dated February 4, 2025, which may be obtained via the Commission's website by searching for the file number at the top of this document, or for an Applicant using the Company name search field on the SEC's EDGAR system. The SEC's EDGAR system may be searched at
For the Commission, by the Division of Investment Management, under delegated authority.
On January 24, 2025, NYSE Arca, Inc. (“NYSE Arca” or “Exchange”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”), pursuant to Section 19(b)(1)
The Exchange proposes to list and trade shares of the following under NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E: Grayscale Solana Trust (SOL) (the “Trust”).
In its filing with the Commission, the self-regulatory organization included statements concerning the purpose of, and basis for, the proposed rule change and discussed any comments it received on the proposed rule change. The text of those statements may be examined at the places specified in Item IV below. The Exchange has prepared summaries, set forth in sections A, B, and C below, of the most significant parts of such statements.
Under NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E, the Exchange may propose to list and/or trade pursuant to unlisted trading privileges “Commodity-Based Trust Shares.”
The Trust is the world's largest Solana (“SOL”) investment fund by assets under management as of the date of this filing. The Trust has approximately $134.2 million in assets under management
The sponsor of the Trust is Grayscale Investments, LLC (“Sponsor”), a Delaware limited liability company. The Sponsor is a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, Inc. (“Digital Currency Group”). The trustee for the Trust is Delaware Trust Company (“Trustee”). The custodian for the Trust is Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC (“Custodian”).
The Trust is a Delaware statutory trust, formed on November 9, 2021, that operates pursuant to a trust agreement between the Sponsor and the Trustee (“Trust Agreement”). The Trust has no fixed termination date.
According to the Annual Report, the Trust's assets consist solely of SOL.
Each Share represents a proportional interest, based on the total number of Shares outstanding, in each of the Trust's assets as determined by reference to the Index Price,
The activities of the Trust are limited to (i) issuing “Baskets” (as defined below) in exchange for SOL transferred to the Trust as consideration in connection with creations, (ii) transferring or selling SOL as necessary to cover the “Sponsor's Fee”
The Trust will not be actively managed. It will not engage in any activities designed to obtain a profit from, or to ameliorate losses caused by, changes in the market prices of SOL.
The Trust is not a registered investment company under the Investment Company Act and the Sponsor believes that the Trust is not required to register under the Investment Company Act.
According to the Annual Report, and as further described below, the Trust's investment objective is for the value of the Shares (based on SOL per Share) to reflect the value of the SOL held by the Trust, determined by reference to the Index Price, less the Trust's expenses and other liabilities. While an investment in the Shares is not a direct investment in SOL, the Shares are designed to provide investors with a cost-effective and convenient way to gain investment exposure to SOL. Generally speaking, a substantial direct investment in SOL may require expensive and sometimes complicated arrangements in connection with the acquisition, security and safekeeping of the SOL and may involve the payment of substantial fees to acquire such SOL from third-party facilitators through cash payments of U.S. dollars. Because the value of the Shares is correlated with the value of SOL held by the Trust, it is important to understand the investment attributes of, and the market for, SOL.
The Trust uses the Index Price to calculate its “NAV,” which is the aggregate value, expressed in U.S. dollars, of the Trust's assets (other than U.S. dollars or other fiat currency), less the U.S. dollar value of the Trust's expenses and other liabilities calculated in the manner set forth under “Valuation of SOL and Determination of NAV.” “NAV per Share” is calculated by dividing NAV by the number of Shares then outstanding.
The following is a description of the material terms of the Trust Agreement as they relate to valuation of the Trust's SOL and the NAV calculations.
On each business day at 4:00 p.m., New York time, or as soon thereafter as practicable (the “Evaluation Time”), the Sponsor will evaluate the SOL held by the Trust and calculate and publish the NAV of the Trust. To calculate the NAV, the Sponsor will:
1. Determine the Index Price as of such business day.
2. Multiply the Index Price by the Trust's aggregate number of SOL owned by the Trust as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the immediately preceding day, less the aggregate number of SOL
3. Add the U.S. dollar value of SOL, calculated using the Index Price, receivable under pending creation orders, if any, determined by multiplying the number of the Baskets represented by such creation orders by the Basket Amount and then multiplying such product by the Index Price.
4. Subtract the U.S. dollar amount of accrued and unpaid Additional Trust Expenses, if any.
5. Subtract the U.S. dollar value of the SOL, calculated using the Index Price, to be distributed under pending redemption orders, if any, determined by multiplying the number of Baskets to be redeemed represented by such redemption orders by the Basket Amount and then multiplying such product by the Index Price (the amount derived from steps 1 through 5 above, the “NAV Fee Basis Amount”).
6. Subtract the U.S. dollar amount of the Sponsor's Fee that accrues for such business day, as calculated based on the NAV Fee Basis Amount for such business day.
In the event that the Sponsor determines that the primary methodology used to determine the Index Price is not an appropriate basis for valuation of the Trust's SOL, the Sponsor will utilize the cascading set of rules as described in “Determination of the Index Price When Index Price is Unavailable” below.
According to the Annual Report, SOL is a digital asset that is created and transmitted through the operations of the peer-to-peer Solana Network, a decentralized network of computers that operates on cryptographic protocols. No single entity owns or operates the Solana Network, the infrastructure of which is collectively maintained by a decentralized user base. The Solana Network allows people to exchange tokens of value, called SOL, which are recorded on a public transaction ledger known as a blockchain. SOL can be used to pay for goods and services, including computational power on the Solana Network, or it can be converted to fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, at rates determined on Digital Asset Trading Platforms or in individual end-user-to-end-user transactions under a barter system. Furthermore, the Solana Network was designed to allow users to write and implement smart contracts—that is, general-purpose code that executes on every computer in the network and can instruct the transmission of information and value based on a sophisticated set of logical conditions. Using smart contracts, users can create markets, store registries of debts or promises, represent the ownership of property, move funds in accordance with conditional instructions and create digital assets other than SOL on the Solana Network. Smart contract operations are executed on the Solana Blockchain in exchange for payment of SOL. Like the Ethereum network, the Solana Network is one of a number of projects intended to expand blockchain use beyond just a peer-to-peer money system.
The Solana protocol introduced the Proof-of-History (“PoH”) timestamping mechanism. PoH automatically orders on-chain transactions by creating a historical record that proves an event has occurred at a specific moment in time. PoH is intended to provide a transaction processing speed and capacity advantage over other blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which rely on sequential production of blocks and can lead to delays caused by validator confirmations. PoH is a new blockchain technology that is not widely used. PoH may not function as intended. For example, it may require more specialized equipment to participate in the network and fail to attract a significant number of users. In addition, there may be flaws in the cryptography underlying PoH, including flaws that affect functionality of the Solana Network or make the network vulnerable to attack.
In addition to the PoH mechanism described above, the Solana Network uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to incentivize SOL holders to validate transactions. Unlike proof-of-work, in which miners expend computational resources to compete to validate transactions and are rewarded coins in proportion to the amount of computational resources expended, in proof-of-stake, validators risk or “stake” coins to compete to be randomly selected to validate transactions and are rewarded coins in proportion to the amount of coins staked. Any malicious activity, such as disagreeing with the eventual consensus or otherwise violating protocol rules, results in the forfeiture or “slashing” of a portion of the staked coins. Proof-of-stake is viewed as more energy efficient and scalable than proof-of-work and is sometimes referred to as “virtual mining.”
The Solana protocol was first conceived by Anatoly Yakovenko in a 2017 whitepaper. Development of the Solana Network is overseen by the Solana Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organization, and Solana Labs, Inc. (the “Company”), a Delaware corporation, which administered the original network launch and token distribution.
Although the Company and the Solana Foundation continue to exert significant influence over the direction of the development of Solana, the Solana Network, like the Ethereum network, is decentralized and does not require governmental authorities or financial institution intermediaries to create, transmit or determine the value of SOL.
As described in the Annual Report, depending on its characteristics, a digital asset may be considered a “security” under the federal securities laws. The test for determining whether a particular digital asset is a “security” is complex and difficult to apply, and the outcome is difficult to predict. Public, though non-binding, statements by senior officials at the SEC have indicated that the SEC does not consider Bitcoin or Ether to be securities. In addition, the SEC, by action through delegated authority approving the exchange rule filings to list shares of trusts holding Ether as commodity-based ETPs, appears to have implicitly taken the view that Ether is not a security. The SEC staff has also provided informal assurances via no-action letter to a handful of promoters that their digital assets are not securities. On the other hand, the SEC has brought enforcement actions against the issuers and promoters of several other digital assets on the basis that the digital assets in question are securities. More recently, the SEC has also brought enforcement actions against Digital Asset Trading Platforms for operating unregistered securities exchanges on the basis that certain of the digital assets traded on their platforms are securities, including SOL.
As part of determining whether SOL is a security, or transactions in SOL by
Smart contracts are programs that run on a blockchain that can execute automatically when certain conditions are met. Smart contracts facilitate the exchange of anything representative of value, such as money, information, property, or voting rights. Using smart contracts, users can send or receive digital assets, create markets, store registries of debts or promises, represent ownership of property or a company, move funds in accordance with conditional instructions and create new digital assets.
Development on the Solana Network involves building more complex tools on top of smart contracts, such as decentralized apps (“DApps”) and organizations that are autonomous, known as decentralized autonomous organizations (“DAOs”). For example, a company that distributes charitable donations on behalf of users could hold donated funds in smart contracts that are paid to charities only if the charity satisfies certain pre-defined conditions.
In total, as of December 31, 2023, more than 200 DApps are currently built on the Solana Network, including DApps in the collectible non-fungible token, gaming, music streaming, and decentralized finance categories.
Additionally, the Solana Network has been used for decentralized finance (“DeFi”), or open finance platforms, which seek to democratize access to financial services, such as borrowing, lending, custody, trading, derivatives and insurance, by removing third-party intermediaries. DeFi can allow users to lend and earn interest on their digital assets, exchange one digital asset for another and create derivative digital assets such as stablecoins, which are digital assets pegged to a reserve asset such as fiat currency. As of December 31, 2023, approximately $1.42 billion was being used as collateral on DeFi platforms.
In addition, the Solana Network and other smart contract platforms have been used for creating non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Unlike digital assets native to smart contract platforms which are fungible and enable the payment of fees for smart contract execution. Instead, NFTs allow for digital ownership of assets that convey certain rights to other digital or real world assets. This new paradigm allows users to own rights to other assets through NFTs, which enable users to trade them with others on the Solana Network. For example, an NFT may convey rights to a digital asset that exists in an online game or a DApp, and users can trade their NFT in the DApp or game, and carry them to other digital experiences, creating an entirely new free-market internet-native economy that can be monetized in the physical world.
In order to own, transfer or use SOL directly on the Solana Network (as opposed to through an intermediary, such as a custodian), a person generally must have internet access to connect to the Solana Network. SOL transactions may be made directly between end-users without the need for a third-party intermediary. To prevent the possibility of double-spending SOL, a user must notify the Solana Network of the transaction by broadcasting the transaction data to its network peers. The Solana Network provides confirmation against double-spending by memorializing every transaction in the Solana Blockchain, which is publicly accessible and transparent. This memorialization and verification against double-spending is accomplished through the Solana Network validation process, which adds “blocks” of data, including recent transaction information, to the Solana Blockchain. Unlike other blockchains that rely solely on sequential production of blocks through PoW or PoS mechanisms, however, the Solana Network introduces PoH, which creates a historical record that proves an event has occurred at a specific moment in time.
Prior to engaging in SOL transactions directly on the Solana Network, a user generally must first install on its computer or mobile device a Solana Network software program that will allow the user to generate a private and public key pair associated with a SOL address. The Solana Network software program and the SOL address also enable the user to connect to the Solana Network and transfer SOL to, and receive SOL from, other users.
Each Solana Network address, or wallet, is associated with a unique “public key” and “private key” pair. To receive SOL, the SOL recipient must provide its public key to the party initiating the transfer. This activity is analogous to a recipient for a transaction in U.S. dollars providing a routing address in wire instructions to the payor so that cash may be wired to the recipient's account. The payor approves the transfer to the address provided by the recipient by “signing” a transaction that consists of the recipient's public key with the private key of the address from where the payor is transferring the SOL. The recipient, however, does not make public or provide to the sender its related private key.
Neither the recipient nor the sender reveal their private keys in a transaction, because the private key authorizes transfer of the funds in that address to other users. Therefore, if a user loses his or her private key, the user may permanently lose access to the SOL contained in the associated address. Likewise, SOL is irretrievably lost if the private key associated with them is deleted and no backup has been made. When sending SOL, a user's Solana Network software program must validate the transaction with the associated private key. In addition, since every computation on the Solana Network requires processing power, there is a transaction fee involved with the transfer that is paid by the payor The resulting digitally validated transaction is sent by the user's Solana Network software program to the Solana Network validators to allow transaction confirmation.
Solana Network validators record and confirm transactions when they validate and add blocks of information to the Solana Blockchain. When a validator is selected to validate a block, it creates that block, which includes data relating to (i) the verification of newly submitted and accepted transactions and (ii) a reference to the prior block in the Solana Blockchain to which the new block is being added. The validator becomes aware of outstanding,
Upon the addition of a block of SOL transactions, the Solana Network software program of both the spending party and the receiving party will show confirmation of the transaction on the Solana Blockchain and reflect an adjustment to the SOL balance in each party's Solana Network public key, completing the SOL transaction. Once a transaction is confirmed on the Solana Blockchain, it is irreversible.
Some SOL transactions are conducted “off-blockchain” and are therefore not recorded in the Solana Blockchain. These “off-blockchain transactions” involve the transfer of control over, or ownership of, a specific digital wallet holding SOL or the reallocation of ownership of certain SOL in a pooled-ownership digital wallet, such as a digital wallet owned by a Digital Asset Trading Platform. In contrast to on-blockchain transactions, which are publicly recorded on the Solana Blockchain, information and data regarding off-blockchain transactions are generally not publicly available. Therefore, off-blockchain transactions are not truly SOL transactions in that they do not involve the transfer of transaction data on the Solana Network and do not reflect a movement of SOL between addresses recorded in the Solana Blockchain. For these reasons, off-blockchain transactions are subject to risks as any such transfer of SOL ownership is not protected by the protocol behind the Solana Network or recorded in, and validated through, the blockchain mechanism.
Unlike other digital assets such as Bitcoin, which are solely created through a progressive mining process, 500 million SOL were created in connection with the launch of the Solana Network. The initial 500 million SOL were distributed as follows:
• Investors: 189 million SOL, or 37.8% of the supply, was sold in private sales to venture capital and other investors conducted between 2018 to 2021.
• Solana Foundation: 52 million SOL, or 10.4% of the supply, was distributed to the Solana Foundation for operational costs incurred in the development of the Solana Network.
• Solana Labs, Inc.: 64 million SOL, or 12.8% of the supply, was retained by Solana Labs to be used, at least in part, to compensate the employees of Solana Labs.
• Community: 195 million SOL, or 39.0% of the supply, was distributed to the Solana Foundation to be deployed as bounties, incentive programs, marketing and grants.
Following the launch of the Solana Network, SOL supply increases through a progressive minting process.
The rate at which new SOL supply has been minted and put into circulation has varied since network launch. Additionally, the Solana protocol reduces the SOL supply by eliminating 50% of transaction fees paid to the network. As a result, net changes in SOL supply are expected to vary in the future.
At network launch, the SOL circulating supply was 8 million SOL. Between network launch and December 31, 2023, the circulating supply of SOL increased by roughly 5,266% to approximately 429 million SOL.
In February 2021, the SOL supply inflation rate was changed from 0.1% to a new initial inflation rate of 8%. The 8% initial inflation rate is scheduled to decline in 15% increments until a long-term inflation rate of 1.5% is reached. As of December 31, 2023, the SOL supply issuance rate was approximately 5.6% on an annual basis before any offsets for eliminated transaction fees.
Historically the Solana Network's development has been overseen by Solana Labs, the Solana Foundation and other core developers. The Solana Foundation and core developers are able to access and alter the Solana Network source code and, as a result, they are responsible for quasi-official releases of updates and other changes to the Solana Network's source code.
For example, in March 2020, the Solana Network launched the Mainnet Beta version of the Solana Network, one month after launching the testnet, Tour de SOL. Solana Labs led the development of these reference implementations.
The release of updates to the Solana Network's source code does not guarantee that the updates will be automatically adopted. Users and nodes must accept any changes made to the Solana source code by downloading the proposed modification of the Solana Network's source code. A modification of the Solana Network's source code is only effective with respect to the Solana users that download it. If a modification is accepted only by a percentage of users and validators, a division in the Solana Network will occur such that one network will run the pre-modification source code and the other network will run the modified source code. Such a division is known as a “fork.” Consequently, as a practical matter, a modification to the source code becomes part of the Solana Network only if accepted by participants collectively having a majority of the processing power on the Solana Network.
Core development of the Solana source code has increasingly focused on modifications of the Solana protocol to increase speed and scalability and also allow for financial and non-financial next generation uses. The Trust's activities will not directly relate to such projects, though such projects may utilize SOL as tokens for the facilitation of their non-financial uses, thereby potentially increasing demand for SOL and the utility of the Solana Network as a whole. Conversely, projects that operate and are built within the Solana Blockchain may increase the data flow on the Solana Network and could either “bloat” the size of the Solana Blockchain or slow confirmation times.
All networked systems are vulnerable to various kinds of attacks. As with any computer network, the Solana Network contains certain flaws. For example, the Solana Network is currently vulnerable to a “51% attack” where, if a party or group were to gain control of more than 50% of the staked SOL, a malicious actor would be able to gain full control of the network and the ability to manipulate the Solana Blockchain. As of December 31, 2023, the top three largest staking pools controlled approximately 93.5% of the SOL staked on the Solana Network.
In addition, many digital asset networks have been subjected to a number of denial of service attacks, which has led to temporary delays in block creation and in the transfer of SOL.
For example, on September 14, 2021, the Solana Network experienced a significant disruption, later attributed to a type of denial of service attack, and was offline for 17 hours, only returning to full functionality 24 hours later. While persons associated with Solana Labs and/or the Solana Foundation are understood to have played a key role in bringing the network back online, the broader community also played a key role, as Solana validators coordinated to upgrade and restart the network. Any similar attacks on the Solana Network that impact the ability to transfer SOL could have a material adverse effect on the price of SOL and the value of the Shares.
Digital assets and digital asset transactions are recorded and validated on blockchains, the public transaction ledgers of a digital asset network. Each digital asset blockchain serves as a record of ownership for all of the units of such digital asset, even in the case of certain privacy-preserving digital assets, where the transactions themselves are not publicly viewable. All digital assets recorded on a blockchain are associated with a public blockchain address, also referred to as a digital wallet. Digital assets held at a particular public blockchain address may be accessed and transferred using a corresponding private key.
Public addresses and their corresponding private keys are generated by the Custodian in secret key generation ceremonies at secure locations inside faraday cages, which are enclosures used to block electromagnetic fields and thus mitigate against attacks. The Custodian uses quantum random number generators to generate the public and private key pairs.
Once generated, private keys are encrypted, separated into “shards,” and then further encrypted. After the key generation ceremony, all materials used to generate private keys, including computers, are destroyed. All key generation ceremonies are performed offline. No party other than the Custodian has access to the private key shards of the Trust, including the Trust itself.
Private key shards are distributed geographically in secure vaults around the world, including in the United States. The locations of the secure vaults may change regularly and are kept confidential by the Custodian for security purposes.
The “Digital Asset Account” is a segregated custody account controlled and secured by the Custodian to store private keys, which allows for the transfer of ownership or control of the Trust's SOL on the Trust's behalf. The Digital Asset Account uses offline storage, or “cold,” mechanisms to secure the Trust's private keys. The term cold storage refers to a safeguarding method by which the private keys corresponding to digital assets are disconnected and/or deleted entirely from the internet. Cold storage of private keys may involve keeping such keys on a non-networked (or “air-gapped”) computer or electronic device or storing the private keys on a storage device (for example, a USB thumb drive) or printed medium (for example, papyrus, paper, or a metallic object). A digital wallet may receive deposits of digital assets but may not send digital assets without use of the digital assets' corresponding private keys. In order to send digital assets from a digital wallet in which the private keys are kept in cold storage, either the private keys must be retrieved from cold storage and entered into an online, or “hot,” digital asset software program to sign the transaction, or the unsigned transaction must be transferred to the cold server in which the private keys are held for signature by the private keys and then transferred back to the online digital asset software program. At that point, the user of the digital wallet can transfer its digital assets.
The Custodian is the custodian of the Trust's private keys (which, as noted above, facilitate the transfer of ownership or control of the Trust's SOL) in accordance with the terms and provisions of the custodian agreement by and between the Custodian, the Sponsor and the Trust (the “Custodian Agreement”). Transfers from the Digital Asset Account require certain security procedures, including, but not limited to, multiple encrypted private key shards, usernames, passwords and 2-step verification. Multiple private key shards held by the Custodian must be combined to reconstitute the private key to sign any transaction in order to transfer the Trust's assets. Private key shards are distributed geographically in secure vaults around the world, including in the United States.
As a result, if any one secure vault is ever compromised, this event will have no impact on the ability of the Trust to access its assets, other than a possible delay in operations, while one or more of the other secure vaults is used instead. These security procedures are intended to remove single points of failure in the protection of the Trust's assets.
Transfers of SOL to the Digital Asset Account will be available to the Trust once processed on the Blockchain.
Subject to obtaining regulatory approval to operate a redemption program and authorization of the Sponsor, the process of accessing and withdrawing SOL from the Trust to redeem a Basket by an Authorized Participant will follow the same general procedure as transferring SOL to the Trust to create a Basket by an Authorized Participant, only in reverse.
The Sponsor will maintain ownership and control of the Trust's SOL in a manner consistent with good delivery requirements for spot commodity transactions.
The value of SOL is determined by the value that various market participants place on SOL through their transactions. The most common means of determining the value of a SOL is by surveying one or more Digital Asset Trading Platforms where SOL is traded publicly and transparently (
On each online Digital Asset Trading Platform, SOL is traded with publicly disclosed valuations for each executed trade, measured by one or more fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar or euro or by the widely used cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Over-the-counter dealers or market makers do not typically disclose their trade data.
As of September 30, 2024, the Digital Asset Trading Platforms included in the Index were Coinbase, LMAX Digital and Kraken. As further described below, the Sponsor and the Trust reasonably believe each of these Digital Asset Trading Platforms are in material compliance with applicable U.S. federal and state licensing requirements and maintain practices and policies designed to comply with anti-money laundering (“AML”) and know-your-customer (“KYC”) regulations.
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Currently, there are several Digital Asset Trading Platforms operating worldwide and online Digital Asset Trading Platforms represent a substantial percentage of SOL buying and selling activity and provide the most data with respect to prevailing
The Index is a U.S. dollar-denominated composite reference rate for the price of SOL. The Index is designed to (1) mitigate the effects of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity from impacting the SOL reference rate, (2) provide a real-time, volume-weighted fair value of SOL and (3) appropriately handle and adjust for non-market related events.
The Index Price is determined by the Index Provider through a process in which trade data is cleansed and compiled in such a manner as to algorithmically reduce the impact of anomalistic or manipulative trading. This is accomplished by adjusting the weight of each data input based on price deviation relative to the observable set, as well as recent and long-term trading volume at each venue relative to the observable set.
The value of the Index is calculated and disseminated on a 24-hour basis and will be available on a continuous basis at
According to the Annual Report, the Digital Asset Trading Platforms that are included in the Index are selected by the Index Provider utilizing a methodology that is guided by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (“IOSCO”) principles for financial benchmarks. For a trading platform to become a Constituent Trading Platform, it must satisfy each of the criteria listed below (the “Inclusion Criteria”):
• Sufficient USD or USDC liquidity relative to the size of the listed assets;
• No evidence in the past 12 months of trading restrictions on individuals or entities that would otherwise meet the trading platform's eligibility requirements to trade;
• No evidence in the past 12 months of undisclosed restrictions on deposits or withdrawals from user accounts;
• Real-time price discovery;
• Limited or no capital controls;
• Transparent ownership including a publicly-known ownership entity;
• Publicly available language and policies addressing legal and regulatory compliance in the U.S., including KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and other policies designed to comply with relevant regulations that might apply to it;
• Be a trading platform that is licensed and able to service investors in one or more of the following jurisdictions:
○ United States
○ United Kingdom
○ European Union
○ Hong Kong
○ Singapore
• Offer programmatic spot trading of the trading pair
A Digital Asset Trading Platform is removed as a Constituent Trading Platform when it no longer satisfies the Inclusion Criteria. The Index Provider does not currently include data from over-the-counter markets or derivatives platforms among the Constituent Trading Platforms. According to the Annual Report, over-the-counter data is not currently included because of the potential for trades to include a significant premium or discount paid for larger liquidity, which creates an uneven comparison relative to more active markets. There is also a higher potential for over-the-counter transactions to not be arms-length, and thus not be representative of a true market price.
The Index Provider and the Sponsor have entered into the index license agreement, dated as of February 1, 2022 (as amended, the “Index License Agreement”), governing the Sponsor's use of the Index Price.
The Index Provider may change the trading venues that are used to calculate the Index or otherwise change the way in which the Index is calculated at any time. For example, the Index Provider has scheduled quarterly reviews in which it may add or remove Constituent Trading Platforms that satisfy or fail the Inclusion Criteria. The Index Provider does not have any obligation to consider the interests of the Sponsor, the Trust, the shareholders, or anyone else in connection with such changes. While the Index Provider is not required to publicize or explain the changes or to alert the Sponsor to such changes, it has historically notified the Trust (and other subscribers to the Index) of any material changes to the Constituent Trading Platforms, including any additions or removals, contemporaneous with its issuance of press releases in connection with the same. The Sponsor will notify investors of any such material event by filing a current report on Form 8-K. Although the Index methodology is designed to operate without any manual intervention, rare events would justify manual intervention. Intervention of this kind would be in response to non-market-related events, such as the halting of deposits or withdrawals of funds on a Digital Asset Trading Platform, the unannounced closure of operations on a Digital Asset Trading Platform, insolvency or the compromise of user funds. In the event that such an intervention is necessary, the Index Provider would issue a public announcement through its website, API and other established communication channels with its clients.
The Index applies an algorithm to the price of SOL on the Constituent Trading Platforms calculated on a per second basis over a 24-hour period. The Index's algorithm is expected to reflect a four-pronged methodology to calculate the Index Price from the Constituent Trading Platforms:
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The Index Provider re-evaluates the weighting algorithm on a periodic basis, but maintains discretion to change the way in which an Index Price is calculated based on its periodic review or in extreme circumstances and does not make the exact methodology to calculate the Index Price publicly available. Nonetheless, the Sponsor believes that the Index is designed to limit exposure to trading or price distortion of any individual Digital Asset Trading Platform that experiences periods of unusual activity or limited liquidity by discounting, in real-time, anomalous price movements at individual Digital Asset Trading Platforms.
The Sponsor believes the Index Provider's selection process for Constituent Trading Platforms as well as the methodology of the Index Price's algorithm provides a more accurate picture of SOL price movements than a simple average of Digital Asset Trading Platform spot prices, and that the weighting of SOL prices on the Constituent Trading Platforms limits the inclusion of data that is influenced by temporary price dislocations that may result from technical problems, limited liquidity or fraudulent activity elsewhere in the SOL spot market. By referencing multiple trading venues and weighting them based on trade activity, the Sponsor believes that the impact of any potential fraud, manipulation or anomalous trading activity occurring on any single venue is reduced.
If the Index Price becomes unavailable, or if the Sponsor determines in good faith that such Index Price does not reflect an accurate price for SOL, then the Sponsor will, on a best efforts basis, contact the Index Provider to obtain the Index Price directly from the Index Provider. If after such contact such Index Price remains unavailable or the Sponsor continues to believe in good faith that such Index Price does not reflect an accurate price for SOL, then the Sponsor will employ a cascading set of rules to determine the Index Price, as described below in “Determination of the Index Price When Index Price is Unavailable.”
The Trust values its SOL for operational purposes by reference to the Index Price. The Index Price is the value of SOL as represented by the Index, calculated at 4:00 p.m., New York time, on each business day.
For the purposes of illustration, outlined below are examples of how the attributes that impact weighting and adjustments in the aforementioned methodology may be utilized to generate the Index Price for a digital asset. For example, Constituent Trading Platforms used to calculate the Index Price of the digital asset may include trading platforms such as Coinbase, Kraken, LMAX Digital, and Crypto.com.
The Index Price algorithm, as described above, accounts for manipulation at the outset by only including data from executed trades on Constituent Trading Platforms that charge trading fees. Then, the below-listed elements may impact the weighting of the Constituent Trading Platforms on the Index Price as follows:
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The Sponsor uses the following cascading set of rules to calculate the Index Price when the Index Price is unavailable.
1. Index Price = The price set by the Index as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the valuation date.
2. Index Price = The price set by Coin Metrics Real-Time Rate (the “Secondary Index”) as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the valuation date (the “Secondary Index Price”). The Secondary Index Price is a real-time reference rate price, calculated using trade data from constituent markets selected by Coin Metrics, Inc. (the “Secondary Index Provider”). The Secondary Index Price is calculated by applying weighted-median techniques to such trade data where half the weight is derived from the trading volume on each constituent market and half is derived from inverse price variance, where a constituent market with high price variance as a result of outliers or market anomalies compared to other constituent markets is assigned a smaller weight. If the Secondary Index becomes unavailable, or if the Sponsor determines in good faith that the Secondary Index does not reflect an accurate price, then the Sponsor will, on a best efforts basis, contact the Secondary Index Provider to obtain the Secondary Index Price directly from the Secondary Index Provider. If after such contact the Secondary Index remains unavailable or the Sponsor continues to believe in good faith that the Secondary Index does not reflect an accurate price, then the Sponsor will employ the next rule to determine the Index Price. There are no predefined criteria to make a good faith assessment and it will be made by the Sponsor in its sole discretion.
3. Index Price = The price set by the Trust's principal market (as defined in the Annual Report) (the “Tertiary Pricing Option”) as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the valuation date. The Tertiary Pricing Option is a spot price derived from the principal market's public data feed that is believed to be consistently publishing pricing information as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, and is provided to the Sponsor via an application programming interface. If the Tertiary Pricing Option becomes unavailable, or if the Sponsor determines in good faith that the Tertiary Pricing Option does not reflect an accurate price, then the Sponsor will, on a best efforts basis, contact the Tertiary Pricing Provider to obtain the Tertiary Pricing Option directly from the Tertiary Pricing Provider. If after such contact the Tertiary Pricing Option remains unavailable after such contact or the Sponsor continues to believe in good faith that the Tertiary Pricing Option does not reflect an accurate price, then the Sponsor will employ the next rule to determine the Index Price. There are no predefined criteria to make a good faith assessment and it will be made by the Sponsor in its sole discretion.
4. Index Price = The Sponsor will use its best judgment to determine a good faith estimate of the Index Price. There are no predefined criteria to make a good faith assessment and it will be made by the Sponsor in its sole discretion.
In the event of a fork, the Index Provider may calculate the Index Price based on a digital asset that the Sponsor does not believe to be an appropriate asset of the Trust (
The Sponsor may, in its sole discretion, select a different index provider, select a different index price provided by the Index Provider, calculate the Index Price by using the cascading set of rules set forth above, or change the cascading set of rules set forth above at any time.
The Sponsor believes the Commission should approve the listing and trading of Shares of the Trust. In the context of prior spot digital asset ETP proposal disapproval orders for Bitcoin and Ethereum, the Commission expressed concerns about the underlying Digital Asset Market due to the potential for fraud and manipulation and has outlined the reasons why such ETP proposals have been unable to satisfy these concerns.
In the Prior Spot Digital Asset ETP Disapproval Orders, the Commission outlined that a proposal relating to a digital asset-based ETP could satisfy its concerns regarding potential for fraud and manipulation by demonstrating:
(1)
(2)
(3)
As described below, the Sponsor believes the structure and operation of the Trust are designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices, to protect investors and the public interest, and to respond to the specific concerns that the Commission may have with respect to potential fraud and manipulation in the context of a SOL-based ETP.
In the Prior Spot Digital Asset ETP Disapproval Orders, the Commission disagreed with the proposition that a digital asset's fungibility, transportability and exchange tradability combine to provide unique protections against, and allow such digital asset to be uniquely resistant to, attempts at price manipulation. The Commission reached its conclusion based on concessions by one issuer that 95% of the reported trading in the digital asset, Bitcoin, is “fake” or non-economic, effectively admitting that the properties of Bitcoin do not make it inherently resistant to manipulation. Such issuer's concessions were further compounded by evidence of potential and actual fraud and manipulation in the historical trading of Bitcoin on certain marketplaces such as (1) “wash” trading, (2) trading based on material, non-public information, including the dissemination of false and misleading information, (3) manipulative activity involving Tether, and (4) fraud and manipulation.
The Sponsor acknowledges the possibility that fraud and manipulation may exist in commodity markets and that digital asset trading, such as SOL,
Further, the Sponsor believes that SOL is arguably less susceptible to manipulation than other commodities that underlie ETPs. For example, with respect to a physical commodity, there may be inside information relating to the supply of the physical commodity, such as the discovery of new sources of supply or significant disruptions at mining facilities that supply the commodity that simply are inapplicable to SOL. The Sponsor also believes that the fragmentation across SOL trading platforms, the relatively slow speed of transactions, and the capital necessary to maintain a significant presence on each trading platform make manipulation of SOL prices through continuous trading activity unlikely. Moreover, the linkage between the SOL markets and the presence of arbitrageurs in those markets means that the manipulation of the price of SOL on any single venue would require manipulation of the global SOL price in order to be effective. Arbitrageurs must have funds distributed across multiple SOL trading platforms in order to take advantage of temporary price dislocations, thereby making it unlikely that there will be strong concentration of funds on any particular SOL trading platform. As a result, the potential for manipulation on a particular SOL trading platform would require overcoming the liquidity supply of such arbitrageurs who are effectively eliminating any cross-market pricing differences. For all of these reasons, the Sponsor believes that SOL is not particularly susceptible to manipulation, especially as compared to other approved ETP reference assets.
The Commission has recognized that a listing exchange could demonstrate that other means to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices are sufficient to justify dispensing with the requisite surveillance-sharing
The Sponsor believes the Index represents a novel means to prevent fraud and manipulation from impacting a reference price for SOL and that it offers protections beyond those that exist in traditional commodity markets or equity markets. Specifically, digital assets, such as SOL, are novel and exist outside traditional commodity markets. It therefore stands to reason that the methods by which they trade will be novel and that the market for digital assets like SOL will have different attributes than traditional commodity markets. Digital assets like SOL were only introduced within the past decade, twenty years after the first U.S. ETFs were offered
The Trust has priced its Shares consistently for more than three years based on the Index. The Sponsor believes the Trust's use of the Index specifically addresses the Commission's concerns in that the Index serves as an alternative means to prevent fraud and manipulation. Specifically, the Index can (i) mitigate the effects of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity on the SOL reference rate, (ii) provide a real-time, volume-weighted fair value of SOL and (iii) appropriately handle and adjust for non-market related events.
As described in more detail below, the Sponsor believes that the Index accomplishes those objectives in the following ways:
1. The Index tracks the Digital Asset Trading Platform Market price through trading activity at “U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms”;
2. The Index mitigates the impact of instances of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity in real-time through systematic adjustments;
3. The Index is constructed and maintained by an expert third-party index provider, allowing for prudent handling of non-market-related events; and
4. The Index mitigates the impact of instances of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity concentrated on any one specific trading platform through a cross-trading platform composite index rate.
To reduce the risk of fraud, manipulation, and other anomalous trading activity from impacting the Index, only U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms are eligible to be included in the Index.
The Index maintains a minimum number of three trading platforms and a maximum number of five trading platforms to track the Digital Asset Trading Platform Market while offering replicability for traders and market makers.
U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms possess safeguards that protect against fraud and manipulation. For example, U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms regulated by the NYDFS under the BitLicense program have regulatory requirements to implement measures designed to effectively detect, prevent, and respond to fraud, attempted fraud, market manipulation, and similar wrongdoing, and to monitor, control, investigate and report back to the NYDFS regarding any wrongdoing.
• Submission of audited financial statements including income statements, statements of assets/liabilities, insurance, and banking;
• Compliance with capitalization requirements set at NYDFS's discretion;
• Prohibitions against the sale or encumbrance to protect full reserves of custodian assets;
• Fingerprints and photographs of employees with access to customer funds;
• Retention of a qualified Chief Information Security Officer and annual penetration testing/audits;
• Documented business continuity and disaster recovery plan, independently tested annually; and
• Participation in an independent exam by NYDFS.
Other U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms have voluntarily implemented measures to protect against common forms of market manipulation.
Furthermore, all U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms are considered MSBs that are subject to FinCEN's federal and state reporting requirements that provide additional safeguards. For example, unscrupulous traders may be less likely to engage in fraudulent or manipulative acts and practices on trading platforms that (1) report suspicious activity to FinCEN as money services businesses, (2) report to state regulators as money transmitters, and/or (3) require customer identification through KYC procedures. U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms are required to:
• Identify people with ownership stakes or controlling roles in the MSB;
• Establish a formal Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policy in place with documentation, training, independent review, and a named compliance officer;
• Implement strict customer identification and verification policies and procedures;
• File Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) for suspicious customer transactions;
• File Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) for cash-in or cash-out transactions greater than $10,000; and
• Maintain a five-year record of currency exchanges greater than $1,000 and money transfers greater than $3,000.
The Sponsor acknowledges that there are substantial differences between FinCEN and New York state regulations and the Commission's regulation of the national securities exchanges.
The Index is calculated once every second according to a systematic methodology that relies on observed trading activity on the Constituent Trading Platforms. While the precise methodology underlying the Index is currently proprietary, the key elements of the Index are outlined below:
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The Index Provider reviews and periodically updates the Constituent Trading Platforms included in the Index by utilizing a methodology that is guided by the IOSCO principles for financial benchmarks.
The Index Provider reviews and periodically updates which trading platforms are included in the Index by utilizing a methodology that is guided by the IOSCO principles for financial benchmarks.
According to the Index methodology, for a trading platform to become a Constituent Trading Platform, it must satisfy each of the following Inclusion Criteria:
• Sufficient USD or USDC liquidity relative to the size of the listed assets;
• No evidence in the past 12 months of trading restrictions on individuals or entities that would otherwise meet the trading platform's eligibility requirements to trade;
• No evidence in the past 12 months of undisclosed restrictions on deposits or withdrawals from user accounts;
• Real-time price discovery;
• Limited or no capital controls;
• Transparent ownership including a publicly-known ownership entity;
• Publicly available language and policies addressing legal and regulatory compliance in the U.S., including KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and other policies designed to comply with relevant regulations that might apply to it;
• Be a trading platform that is licensed and able to service investors in one or more of the following jurisdictions:
○ United States,
○ United Kingdom,
○ European Union,
○ Hong Kong,
○ Singapore; and
• Offer programmatic spot trading of the trading pair and reliably publish trade prices and volumes on a real-time basis through Rest and Websocket APIs.
Although the Index methodology is designed to operate without any human interference, rare events would justify manual intervention. Manual intervention would only be in response to “non-market-related events” (
The Index is based on the price and volume data of multiple U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms that satisfy the Index Provider's Inclusion Criteria. By referencing multiple trading venues and weighting them based on trade activity, the impact of any potential fraud, manipulation, or anomalous trading activity occurring on any single venue is reduced. Specifically, the effects of fraud, manipulation, or anomalous trading activity occurring on any single venue are de-weighted and consequently diluted by non-anomalous trading activity from other Constituent Trading Platforms.
Although the Index is designed to accurately capture the market price of SOL, third parties may be able to purchase and sell SOL on public or private markets not included among the constituent Digital Asset Trading Platforms of the Index, and such transactions may take place at prices materially higher or lower than the Index Price. Moreover, there may be variances in the prices of SOL on the various Digital Asset Trading Platforms, including as a result of differences in fee structures or administrative procedures on different Digital Asset Trading Platforms. For example, based on data
The Trust has consistently priced its Shares at 4:00 p.m., E.T. based on the Index Price for over three years. While that pricing would be known to the market, the Sponsor believes that, even if efforts to manipulate the price of SOL at 4:00 p.m., E.T. were successful on any Digital Asset Trading Platform, such activity would have had a negligible effect on the pricing of the Trust, due to the controls embedded in the structure of the Index.
Accordingly, the Sponsor believes that the Index has proven its ability to (i) mitigate the effects of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity on the SOL reference rate, (ii) provide a real-time, volume-weighted fair value of SOL and (iii) appropriately handle and adjust for non-market related events. For these reasons, the Sponsor believes that the Index represents an effective alternative means to prevent fraud and manipulation and the Trust's reliance on the Index addresses the Commission's concerns with respect to potential fraud and manipulation.
In summary, the Sponsor believes that the foregoing addresses concerns the Commission may have with respect to SOL-based ETPs, based on the Commission's articulated concerns with respect to potential fraud and manipulation in Bitcoin-based ETPs. Specifically, the Sponsor believes that, although SOL is not itself inherently resistant to fraud and manipulation, the Index represents an effective means to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices. As discussed above, the Trust has used the Index to price the Shares for more than three years, and the Index has proven its ability to (i) mitigate the effects of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity on the SOL reference rate, (ii) provide a real-time, volume-weighted fair value of SOL and (iii) appropriately handle and adjust for non-market related events.
Authorized Participants may submit orders to create or redeem Shares under procedures for “Cash Orders.”
The Authorized Participants will deliver only cash to create Shares and will receive only cash when redeeming Shares. Further, Authorized Participants will not directly or indirectly purchase, hold, deliver, or receive SOL as part of the creation or redemption process or otherwise direct the Trust or a third party with respect to purchasing, holding, delivering, or receiving SOL as part of the creation or redemption process.
The Trust will create Shares by receiving SOL from a third party that is not the Authorized Participant and the Trust, or an affiliate of the Trust (and in any event not the Authorized Participant), is responsible for selecting the third party to deliver the SOL. Further, the third party will not be acting as an agent of the Authorized Participant with respect to the delivery of the SOL to the Trust or acting at the direction of the Authorized Participant with respect to the delivery of the SOL to the Trust. The Trust will redeem Shares by delivering SOL to a third party that is not the Authorized Participant and the Trust, or an affiliate of the Trust (and in any event not the Authorized Participant), is responsible for selecting the third party to receive the SOL. Further, the third party will not be acting as an agent of the Authorized Participant with respect to the receipt of the SOL from the Trust or acting at the direction of the Authorized Participant with respect to the receipt of the SOL from the Trust.
Cash Orders are made through the participation of a Liquidity Provider
According to the Registration Statement, the Trust creates Baskets (as described below) of Shares only upon receipt of SOL and redeems Shares only by distributing SOL. “Authorized Participants” are the only persons that may place orders to create and redeem Baskets. Each Authorized Participant must (i) be a registered broker-dealer and (ii) enter into an agreement with the Sponsor and Transfer Agent that provides the procedures for the creation and redemption of Baskets and for the delivery of SOL required for the creation and redemption of Baskets via a Liquidity Provider (each, a “Participant Agreement”). An Authorized Participant may act for its own account or as agent for broker-dealers, custodians and other securities market participants that wish to create or redeem Baskets. Shareholders who are not Authorized Participants will only be able to create or redeem their Shares through an Authorized Participant.
The Trust issues Shares to and redeems Shares from Authorized Participants on an ongoing basis, but only in one or more “Baskets” (with a Basket being a block of 10,000 Shares). The Trust will not issue fractions of a Basket.
The creation and redemption of Baskets will be made only in exchange for the delivery to the Trust, or the distribution by the Trust, of the number of whole and fractional SOL represented by each Basket being created or redeemed, which is determined by dividing (x) the number of SOL owned by the Trust at 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the trade date of a creation or redemption order, after deducting the number of SOL representing the U.S. dollar value of accrued but unpaid fees and expenses of the Trust (converted using the Index Price at such time, and carried to the eighth decimal place), by (y) the number of Shares outstanding at such time (with the quotient so obtained calculated to one one-hundred-millionth of one SOL (
The creation of Baskets requires the delivery by the Authorized Participant of the Total Basket Amount and the redemption of Baskets requires the distribution to the Authorized Participant of the Total Basket Amount.
Although the Trust creates Baskets only upon the receipt of SOL, and redeems Baskets only by distributing SOL, an Authorized Participant will submit Cash Orders, pursuant to which the Authorized Participant will deposit cash with, or accept cash from, the Transfer Agent in connection with the creation and redemption of Baskets.
Cash Orders will be facilitated by the Transfer Agent and Liquidity Engager, acting other than in its capacity as Sponsor. On an order-by-order basis, the Liquidity Engager will engage one or more Liquidity Providers to obtain or receive SOL in exchange for cash in connection with such order, as described in more detail below.
Unless the Sponsor requires that a Cash Order be effected at actual execution prices (an “Actual Execution Cash Order”),
Alternatively, the Sponsor may require that a Cash Order be effected as an Actual Execution Cash Order, in its sole discretion based on market conditions and other factors existing at the time of such Cash Order, and under such circumstances, any price differential of SOL between the trade date and the settlement date will be borne solely by the Authorized Participant until such SOL have been received or liquidated by the Trust.
In the case of creations, to transfer the Total Basket Amount to the Trust's Digital Asset Account, the Liquidity Provider will transfer SOL to one of the public key addresses associated with the Digital Asset Account and as provided by the Sponsor. In the case of redemptions, the same procedure is conducted, but in reverse, using the public key addresses associated with the wallet of the Liquidity Provider and as provided by such party. All such transactions will be conducted on the Blockchain and parties acknowledge and agree that such transfers may be irreversible if done incorrectly.
Authorized Participants do not pay a transaction fee to the Trust in connection with the creation or redemption of Baskets, but there may be transaction fees associated with the validation of the transfer of SOL by the SOL Network, which will be paid by the Custodian in the case of redemptions and the Authorized Participant or the Liquidity Provider in the case of creations. Service providers may charge Authorized Participants administrative fees for order placement and other services related to creation of Baskets. As discussed above, Authorized Participants will also pay the Variable Fee in connection with Variable Fee Cash Orders. Under certain circumstances Authorized Participants may also be required to deposit additional cash in the Cash Account, or be entitled to receive excess cash from the Cash Account, in connection with creations and redemptions pursuant to Actual Execution Cash Orders. Authorized Participants will receive no fees, commissions or other form of compensation or inducement of any kind from either the Sponsor or the Trust and no such person has any obligation or responsibility to the Sponsor or the Trust to effect any sale or resale of Shares.
The following is a summary of the procedures for the creation and redemption of Baskets.
On any business day, an Authorized Participant may place an order with the Transfer Agent to create one or more Baskets.
Cash Orders for creation must be placed with the Transfer Agent no later than 1:59:59 p.m., New York time.
The Sponsor may in its sole discretion limit the number of Shares created pursuant to Cash Orders on any specified day without notice to the Authorized Participants and may direct the Marketing Agent to reject any Cash Orders in excess of such capped amount. In exercising its discretion to limit the number of Shares created pursuant to Cash Orders, the Sponsor expects to take into consideration a number of factors, including the availability of Liquidity Providers to facilitate Cash Orders and the cost of processing Cash Orders.
Creations under Cash Orders will take place as follows, where “T” is the trade date and each day in the sequence must be a business day. Before a creation order is placed, the Sponsor determines if such creation order will be a Variable Fee Cash Order or an Actual Execution Cash Order, which determination is communicated to the Authorized Participant.
The procedures by which an Authorized Participant can redeem one or more Baskets mirror the procedures for the creation of Baskets. On any business day, an Authorized Participant may place a redemption order specifying the number of Baskets to be redeemed.
The redemption of Shares pursuant to Cash Orders will only take place if approved by the Sponsor in writing, in its sole discretion and on a case-by-case basis. In exercising its discretion to approve the redemption of Shares pursuant to Cash Orders, the Sponsor expects to take into consideration a number of factors, including the availability of Liquidity Providers to facilitate Cash Orders and the cost of processing Cash Orders.
Cash Orders for redemption must be placed no later than 1:59:59 p.m., New York time on each business day. The Authorized Participants may only redeem Baskets and cannot redeem any Shares in an amount less than a Basket.
Redemptions under Cash Orders will take place as follows, where “T” is the trade date and each day in the sequence must be a business day. Before a redemption order is placed, the Sponsor determines if such redemption order will be a Variable Fee Cash Order or an Actual Execution Cash Order, which determination is communicated to the Authorized Participant.
The creation or redemption of Shares may be suspended generally, or refused with respect to particular requested creations or redemptions, during any period when the transfer books of the Transfer Agent are closed or if circumstances outside the control of the Sponsor or its delegates make it for all practicable purposes not feasible to process creation orders or redemption orders or for any other reason at any time or from time to time.
The Trust's website (
One or more major market data vendors, will provide an intra-day indicative value (“IIV”) per Share updated every 15 seconds, as calculated by the Exchange or a third party financial data provider during the Exchange's Core Trading Session (9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., E.T.). The IIV will be calculated using the same methodology as the NAV per Share of the Trust (as described above), specifically by using the prior day's closing NAV per Share as a base and updating that value during the NYSE Arca Core Trading Session to reflect changes in the value of the Index during the trading day.
The IIV disseminated during the NYSE Arca Core Trading Session should not be viewed as an actual real-time update of the NAV per Share, which will be calculated only once at the end of each trading day. The IIV will be widely disseminated on a per Share basis every 15 seconds during the NYSE Arca Core Trading Session by one or more major market data vendors. In addition, the IIV will be available through on-line information services.
The NAV for the Trust will be calculated by the Sponsor once a day and will be disseminated daily to all market participants at the same time. To the extent that the Sponsor has utilized the cascading set of rules described in “Index Price” above, the Trust's website will note the valuation methodology used and the price per SOL resulting from such calculation. Quotation and last-sale information regarding the Shares will be disseminated through the facilities of the Consolidated Tape Association (“CTA”).
Quotation and last sale information for SOL will be widely disseminated through a variety of major market data vendors, including Bloomberg and Reuters. In addition, real-time price (and volume) data for SOL is available by subscription from Reuters and Bloomberg. The spot price of SOL is available on a 24-hour basis from major market data vendors, including Bloomberg and Reuters. Information relating to trading, including price and volume information, in SOL will be available from major market data vendors and from the trading platforms on which SOL are traded. The normal trading hours for Digital Asset Trading Platforms are 24-hours per day, 365-days per year.
On each business day, the Sponsor will publish the Index Price, the Trust's NAV, and the NAV per Share on the Trust's website as soon as practicable after its determination. If the NAV and NAV per Share have been calculated using a price per SOL other than the Index Price for such Evaluation Time, the publication on the Trust's website will note the valuation methodology used and the price per SOL resulting from such calculation.
The Trust will provide website disclosure of its NAV daily. The website disclosure of the Trust's NAV will occur at the same time as the disclosure by the Sponsor of the NAV to Authorized Participants so that all market participants are provided such portfolio information at the same time. Therefore, the same portfolio information will be provided on the public website as well as in electronic files provided to Authorized Participants. Accordingly, each investor will have access to the current NAV of the Trust through the Trust's website, as well as from one or more major market data vendors.
The value of the Index, as well as additional information regarding the Index, will be available on a continuous basis at
Information regarding market price and trading volume of the Shares will be continually available on a real-time basis throughout the day on brokers' computer screens and other electronic services.
Information regarding the previous day's closing price and trading volume information for the Shares will be published daily in the financial section of newspapers.
The Exchange deems the Shares to be equity securities, thus rendering trading in the Shares subject to the Exchange's existing rules governing the trading of equity securities. Shares will trade on the NYSE Arca Marketplace from 4:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., E.T. in accordance with NYSE Arca Rule 7.34-E (Early, Core, and Late Trading Sessions). The Exchange has appropriate rules to facilitate transactions in the Shares during all trading sessions. As provided in NYSE Arca Rule 7.6-E, the minimum price variation (“MPV”) for quoting and entry of orders in equity securities traded on the NYSE Arca Marketplace is $0.01, with the exception of securities that are priced less than $1.00, for which the MPV for order entry is $0.0001.
The Shares will conform to the initial and continued listing criteria under NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E. The trading of the Shares will be subject to NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E(g), which sets forth certain restrictions on Equity Trading Permit Holders (“ETP Holders”) acting as registered Market Makers in Commodity-Based Trust Shares to facilitate surveillance. The Exchange represents that, for initial and continued listing, the Trust will be in compliance with Rule 10A-3
With respect to trading halts, the Exchange may consider all relevant factors in exercising its discretion to halt or suspend trading in the Shares of the Trust.
The Exchange may halt trading during the day in which an interruption to the dissemination of the IIV or the value of the Index occurs. If the interruption to the dissemination of the IIV or the value of the Index persists past the trading day in which it occurred, the Exchange will halt trading no later than the beginning of the trading day following the interruption. In addition, if the Exchange becomes aware that the NAV per Share is not disseminated to all market participants at the same time, it will halt trading in the Shares until such time as the NAV per Share is available to all market participants.
The Exchange represents that trading in the Shares of the Trust will be subject to the existing trading surveillances administered by the Exchange, as well as cross-market surveillances administered by FINRA on behalf of the Exchange, which are designed to detect violations of Exchange rules and applicable federal securities laws.
The surveillances referred to above generally focus on detecting securities trading outside their normal patterns, which could be indicative of manipulative or other violative activity. When such situations are detected, surveillance analysis follows and investigations are opened, where appropriate, to review the behavior of all relevant parties for all relevant trading violations.
The Exchange or FINRA, on behalf of the Exchange, or both, will communicate as needed regarding trading in the Shares with other markets and other entities that are members of the ISG, and the Exchange or FINRA, on behalf of the Exchange, or both, may obtain trading information regarding trading in the Shares and SOL derivatives from such markets and other entities. In addition, the Exchange may obtain information regarding trading in the Shares and SOL derivatives from markets and other entities that are members of ISG or with which the Exchange has in place a comprehensive surveillance sharing agreement (“CSSA”).
In addition, the Exchange also has a general policy prohibiting the distribution of material, non-public information by its employees.
All statements and representations made in this filing regarding (a) the description of the index, portfolio, or reference assets of the Trust, (b) limitations on index or portfolio holdings or reference assets, or (c) the applicability of Exchange listing rules specified in this rule filing shall constitute continued listing requirements for listing the Shares on the Exchange.
The Sponsor has represented to the Exchange that it will advise the Exchange of any failure by the Trust to comply with the continued listing requirements, and, pursuant to its obligations under Section 19(g)(1) of the Act, the Exchange will monitor for compliance with the continued listing requirements. If the Trust is not in compliance with the applicable listing requirements, the Exchange will commence delisting procedures under NYSE Arca Rule 5.5-E(m).
Prior to the commencement of trading, the Exchange will inform its ETP Holders in an “Information Bulletin” of the special characteristics and risks associated with trading the Shares. Specifically, the Information Bulletin will discuss the following: (1) the procedures for creations of Shares in Baskets; (2) NYSE Arca Rule 9.2-E(a), which imposes a duty of due diligence on its ETP Holders to learn the essential facts relating to every customer prior to trading the Shares; (3) information regarding how the value of the Index and NAV are disseminated; (4) the possibility that trading spreads and the resulting premium or discount on the Shares may widen during the Opening and Late Trading Sessions, when an updated IIV will not be calculated or publicly disseminated; (5) the requirement that members deliver a prospectus to investors purchasing newly issues Shares prior to or concurrently with the confirmation of a transaction; and (6) trading information. The Exchange notes that investors purchasing Shares directly from the Trust will receive a prospectus.
In addition, the Information Bulletin will reference that the Trust is subject to various fees and expenses as described in the Annual Report. The Information Bulletin will disclose that information about the Shares of the Trust is publicly available on the Trust's website.
The Information Bulletin will also discuss any relief, if granted, by the Commission or the staff from any rules under the Act.
The basis under the Act for this proposed rule change is the requirement under Section 6(b)(5)
The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices in that the Shares will be listed and traded on the Exchange pursuant to the initial and continued listing criteria in NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E. The Exchange has in place surveillance procedures that are adequate to properly monitor trading in the Shares in all trading sessions and to deter and detect violations of Exchange rules and applicable federal securities laws. The Exchange or FINRA, on behalf of the Exchange, or both, will communicate as needed regarding trading in the Shares with other markets that are members of the ISG, and the Exchange or FINRA, on behalf of the Exchange, or both, may obtain trading information regarding trading in the Shares from such markets. In addition, the Exchange may obtain information regarding trading in the Shares from markets that are members of ISG or with which the Exchange has in place a CSSA. Also, pursuant to NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E(g), the Exchange is able to obtain information regarding trading in the Shares and the underlying SOL or any SOL derivative through ETP Holders' proprietary trades or customer trades effected through ETP Holders any relevant market.
The proposed rule change is also designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices because, although the Digital Asset Trading Platform Market is not inherently resistant to fraud and manipulation, the Index serves as a means sufficient to mitigate the impact of instances of fraud and manipulation on a reference price for SOL. Specifically, the Index provides a better benchmark for the price of SOL than the Digital Asset Trading Platform Market price because it (1) tracks the Digital Asset Trading Platform Market price through trading activity at U.S.-Compliant Trading Platforms; (2) mitigates the impact of instances of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity in real-time through systematic adjustments; (3) is constructed and maintained by an expert third-party index provider, allowing for prudent handling of non-market-related events; and (4) mitigates the impact of instances of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity concentrated on any one specific trading platform through a cross-trading platform composite index rate. The Trust has used the Index to price the Shares for more than three years, and the Index has proven its ability to (i) mitigate the effects of fraud, manipulation and other anomalous trading activity from impacting the SOL reference rate, (ii) provide a real-time, volume-weighted fair value of SOL and (iii) appropriately handle and adjust for non-market related events, such that efforts to manipulate the price of SOL would have had a negligible effect on the pricing of the Trust, due to the controls embedded in the structure of the Index. In addition, certain of the Index's Constituent Trading Platforms also have or have begun to implement market surveillance infrastructure to further detect, prevent, and respond to fraud, attempted fraud, and similar wrongdoing, including market manipulation.
The proposed rule change is designed to promote just and equitable principles of trade and to protect investors and the public interest in that there is a considerable amount of SOL price and market information available on public websites and through professional and subscription services. Investors may obtain, on a 24-hour basis, SOL pricing information based on the spot price for SOL from various financial information service providers. The closing price and settlement prices of SOL are readily available from the Digital Asset Trading Platforms and other publicly available websites. In addition, such prices are published in public sources, or on-line information services such as Bloomberg and Reuters. The NAV per Share will be calculated daily and made available to all market participants at the same time. The Trust will provide website disclosure of its NAV daily. One or more major market data vendors will disseminate for the Trust on a daily basis information with respect to the most recent NAV per Share and Shares outstanding. In addition, if the Exchange becomes aware that the NAV per Share is not disseminated to all market participants at the same time, it will halt trading in the Shares until such time as the NAV is available to all market participants. Quotation and last-sale information regarding the Shares will be disseminated through the facilities of the CTA. The IIV will be widely disseminated on a per Share basis every 15 seconds during the NYSE Arca Core Trading Session (normally 9:30 a.m., E.T., to 4:00 p.m., E.T.) by one or more major market data vendors. The Exchange represents that the Exchange may halt trading during the day in which an interruption to the dissemination of the IIV or the value of the Index occurs. If the interruption to the dissemination of the IIV or the value of the Index persists past the trading day in which it occurred, the Exchange will halt trading no later than the beginning of the trading day following the interruption.
The proposed rule change is designed to perfect the mechanism of a free and open market and, in general, to protect investors and the public interest in that it will facilitate the listing and trading of an additional type of exchange-traded product that will enhance competition among market participants, to the benefit of investors and the marketplace. As noted above, the Exchange has in place surveillance procedures relating to trading in the Shares and may obtain information via ISG from other exchanges that are members of ISG or with which the Exchange has entered into a CSSA. In addition, as noted above, investors will have ready access to information regarding the Trust's NAV, IIV, and quotation and last sale information for the Shares.
The Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will impose any burden on competition that is not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. The Exchange notes that the proposed rule change will facilitate the listing and trading of an additional type of exchange-traded product, and the first such product based on SOL, which will enhance competition among market participants, to the benefit of investors and the marketplace.
No written comments were solicited or received with respect to the proposed rule change.
Within 45 days of the date of publication of this notice in the
(A) by order approve or disapprove the proposed rule change, or
(B) institute proceedings to determine whether the proposed rule change should be disapproved.
Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views and arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed rule change is consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
• Use the Commission's internet comment form (
• Send an email to
• Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549-1090.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated authority.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) publishes a list of information collection packages requiring clearance by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with Public Law 104-13, the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, effective October 1, 1995. This notice includes a revisions and extensions of OMB-approved information collections.
SSA is soliciting comments on the accuracy of the agency's burden estimate; the need for the information; its practical utility; ways to enhance its quality, utility, and clarity; and ways to minimize burden on respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology. Mail, email, or fax your comments and recommendations on the information collection(s) to the OMB Desk Officer and SSA Reports Clearance Officer at the following addresses or fax numbers.
Or you may submit your comments online through
I. The information collections below are pending at SSA. SSA will submit them to OMB within 60 days from the date of this notice. To be sure we consider your comments, we must receive them no later than April 14, 2025. Individuals can obtain copies of the collection instruments by writing to the above email address.
The Surface Transportation Board has received a request from the University of Toronto (WB25-04—2/3/25) for permission to use data from the Board's 1984-2022 unmasked Carload Waybill Samples. A copy of this request may be obtained from the Board's website under docket no. WB25-04.
The waybill sample contains confidential railroad and shipper data; therefore, if any parties object to these requests, they should file their objections with the Director of the Board's Office of Economics within 14 calendar days of the date of this notice. The rules for release of waybill data are codified at 49 CFR 1244.9.
9:00 a.m. ET on February 13, 2025.
Knoxville Office Complex, Knoxville, Tennessee.
Open.
The TVA Board of Directors will hold a public meeting on February 13 at TVA's Knoxville Office Complex, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, Knoxville, Tennessee. The meeting will be called to order at 9:00 a.m. ET to consider the agenda items listed below.
On February 12, at the Knoxville Office Complex, the public may comment on any agenda item or subject at a Board-hosted public listening session which begins at 2:00 p.m. ET and will last until 4:00 p.m. Preregistration is required to address the Board.
For more information: Please contact Melissa Greene, TVA Media Relations at (865) 632-6000, Knoxville, Tennessee. Anyone who wishes to comment on any of the agenda in writing may send their comments to: TVA Board of Directors, Board Agenda Comments, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, Knoxville, Tennessee 37902.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
Notice of meeting.
The TVA Regional Energy Resource Council (RERC) will hold a meeting on February 24 and 25, to receive an update and provide advice on TVA's 2025 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). The IRP provides strategic direction on how TVA will continue to provide low-cost, reliable, resilient, and increasingly cleaner electricity to the 10 million residents of the Valley region.
The meeting will be held in Franklin, Tennessee, at the Hilton Franklin Cool Springs on Monday, February 24, 2025, from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. CT and on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. CT. RERC members are invited to attend the meeting in person. The public is invited to view the meeting virtually or attend in person. A one-hour public listening session for the public to present comments virtually or in person will be held February 25, at 9:15 a.m. CT. A link and instructions to view the meeting will be posted on TVA's RERC website at
The meeting will take place at the Hilton Franklin Cool Springs at 601 Corporate Centre Dr., Franklin, TN 37067. The meeting will also be available virtually to the public. Instructions to view the meeting will be posted at
Bekim Haliti,
The RERC was established to advise TVA on its energy resource activities and the priorities among competing objectives and values. Notice of this meeting is given under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C. 10.
The meeting agenda includes the following:
Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Department of Transportation (DOT).
Final circular; delay of applicability date.
This document delays the applicability date of the January 16, 2025, Third-Party Contracting Guidance Circular (C 4220.1G), which makes updates to reflect statutory and regulatory changes that have occurred since the previous update in C 4220.1F.
The applicability date of Circular 4220.1G published on January 16, 2025, is delayed from February 18, 2025, until March 20, 2025.
Correspondence related to this guidance should refer to the docket number set forth above (FTA-2024-0015) and be submitted to the Executive Director, Federal Transit Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590.
For third party contracting issues, contact Tara Murphy, Division Chief, Office of Administration, Federal Transit Administration, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Room E41-311, Washington, DC 20590, phone: (202) 366-5647 or email
In accordance with the memorandum of
This action is exempt from notice and comment requirements in 5 U.S.C. 553 and is effective immediately upon publication in the
(b) The Attorney General shall serve as Chair of the Task Force.
(c) In addition to the Chair, the Task Force shall consist of the following other members:
(b) In order to advise the President regarding its work and assist the President in formulating future policy, the Task Force shall submit to the President, through the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy:
(b) The Department of Justice shall provide such funding and administrative and technical support as the Task Force may require, to the extent permitted by law and as authorized by existing appropriations.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
(A) to have directly engaged in any effort by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute a protected person without consent of that person's country of nationality;
(B) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, any activity in subsection (a)(ii)(A) of this section or any person whose property or interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or
(C) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property or interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.
(b) The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this section apply except to the extent provided by statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted before the date of this order.
(a) the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to section 1 of this order; and
(b) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.
(b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.
(a) the term “person” means an individual or entity;
(b) the term “entity” means a government or instrumentality of such government, partnership, association, trust, joint venture, corporation, group, subgroup, or other organization;
(c) the term “United States person” means any United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including a foreign branch, subsidiary, or employee of such entity), or any person lawfully in the United States;
(d) the term “protected person” means:
(A) current or former members of the Armed Forces of the United States;
(B) current or former elected or appointed officials of the United States Government; and
(C) any other person currently or formerly employed by or working on behalf of the United States Government; and
(A) current or former members of the armed forces of such ally of the United States;
(B) current or former elected or appointed government officials of such ally of the United States; and
(C) any other person currently or formerly employed by or working on behalf of such a government;
(e) the term “ally of the United States” means:
(f) the term “immediate family member” means a spouse or child;
(g) the term “alien” has the meanings given to the term in section 101(a)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(3)); and
(h) the term “foreign person” means a person that is not a United States person.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
(a) the United States shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa; and
(b) the United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.
(b) The head of each agency may permit the provision of any such foreign aid or assistance that, in the discretion of the relevant agency head, is necessary or appropriate.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
(b) Executive Order 13279, as amended by Executive Order 13559, is further amended by striking section 2(h) and redesignating sections 2(i) and 2(j) as sections 2(h) and 2(i), respectively.
(b) The Office shall be housed in the Domestic Policy Council and headed by a Senior Advisor to the White House Faith Office, and supported by other positions as the President considers appropriate. In carrying out this order, the Office shall work with the Domestic Policy Council, the Office of Public Liaison, and the Centers for Faith established by Executive Order 13198, Executive Order 13280, Executive Order 13342, and Executive Order 13397, as amended by section 2(a)(ii) of this order.
(b) Agencies shall, to the extent permitted by law, provide such information, support, and assistance to the Office as may assist the Office in fulfilling this order.
(c) The Directors of each Center of Faith shall oversee their respective agency's efforts to assist the Office in carrying out this order, and shall report on such efforts to agency leadership and the Office. Agencies that lack a Center for Faith shall designate or appoint a Faith Liaison within the agency to oversee the agency's efforts to assist the Office in carrying out this order and to report on such efforts to agency leadership and the Office. All such agencies shall designate or appoint such a Faith Liaison within 90 days of the date of this order.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
(b) In developing such proposed plan of action, the Attorney General shall review, at a minimum:
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.