TXSE ETF Listing Fees: Sponsors Are Buying Liquidity, Not a Ticker

TXSE Turns the ETF Listing Fee Into a Liquidity Contract

The Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) has adopted a three-tier annual listing fee schedule for exchange traded products, set at $100,000, $55,000, or $10,000 a year, and paired it with daily stipends the exchange pays lead market makers who meet performance standards. The notice of filing and immediate effectiveness was published in the Federal Register on October 1, 2026 (SEC Release No. 34-106505), covering filing SR-TXSE-2026-030, which TXSE submitted on September 14, 2026.

But here is the part the fee headlines are missing. In the top Signature Tier, if the lead market maker fails to perform on a given day, the stipend the exchange does not pay is credited back to the issuer. That is not a listing fee in the traditional sense. It is an ETF sponsor buying a liquidity commitment, with a partial refund when the commitment is not met.

Here is what happened, why it matters, and what ETF sponsors and fund complexes should decide before choosing a tier.

What TXSE Filed, and Why the Timing Matters

The filing adds new Rule 17.180, which creates three tiers.

• Signature Tier: $100,000 a year. According to TXSE's proposed fee schedule (Exhibit 5A), the lead market maker (LMM) receives $34.75 daily for each Minimum Performance Standard it meets.
• Premier Tier: $55,000 a year. The LMM receives $17.37 daily for each standard it meets.
• Core Tier: $10,000 a year. The LMM receives $16 daily, but only on days it is a Performant LMM in all seven Minimum Performance Standards.

The LMM program rules themselves came in a companion filing, SR-TXSE-2026-026, which TXSE filed on September 1, 2026 (SEC Release No. 34-106260). That filing was also submitted for immediate effectiveness.

The timing is deliberate. The SEC approved TXSE's registration on September 30, 2025, and the exchange began live trading on July 10, 2026. Venable reported that ETP listings were anticipated to begin in September 2026. According to FactSet data, U.S. ETF assets reached a record $13.5 trillion at year-end 2025, with 1,167 launches, a 59% increase over the 736 launches in 2024. TXSE is pricing for the sponsors who file next.

The Distinction That Matters: Admission Fee Versus Liquidity Purchase

A traditional listing fee buys admission. Secondary market quality is something the sponsor arranges separately, often through informal relationships with market makers, and hopes holds up. TXSE has fused the two. The tier you pay for determines how much the exchange pays the firm responsible for quoting your fund.

For a new ETF, that linkage is the whole game. Thin trading produces wide spreads, wide spreads deter platform and advisor adoption, and seed capital stays trapped in a fund that cannot grow. A sponsor launching into a year with 1,167 competitors is not paying for a ticker. It is paying to avoid becoming one of the funds nobody can trade efficiently.

The math sponsors should run

At $34.75 per standard per day, and assuming roughly 252 trading days, each Minimum Performance Standard is worth about $8,757 a year to a Signature Tier LMM. At $17.37, the Premier figure is about $4,377 per standard. Exhibit 5A defines seven Minimum Performance Standards, and a Core Tier LMM must meet all seven on the same day to earn its stipend. If an LMM met all seven standards on every one of those 252 trading days, the Signature stipend would total roughly $61,300 a year. That figure is the ceiling, and any stipend the LMM fails to earn below it becomes the issuer's credit against the following year's listing fees. Those numbers should be in hand before any tier comparison.

Why this is a fund formation decision

Listing venue and tier now belong in the launch budget alongside seed capital and LMM selection, not in a post-launch operations checklist. The pool of affected sponsors is also widening. Separately, the SEC's November 17, 2025 Dimensional exemptive order permitted a Dimensional-advised open-end fund to offer an ETF share class alongside mutual fund share classes. Complexes that pursue similar relief and list the ETF class on TXSE will face the same tier decision.

The Refund Is a Credit, Not Cash

The Signature Tier credit is the most interesting feature in the filing and the most easily misread. Per Exhibit 5B, when the LMM is not a Performant LMM on a given day, the unpaid stipend is credited back to the issuer. The credit applies to the issuer's listing fees for the following year and expires if not used during that year.

That structure carries real consequences for how a sponsor should value it:

• The credit only has value if the fund stays listed on TXSE. A sponsor that moves or closes the fund cannot use it.
• The credit is delayed. Underperformance in February is not offset until the following year's listing fees.
• The credit does not fix the liquidity problem. A refund on fees does nothing for shareholders who traded through wide spreads on the days the LMM missed its standards.
• The filing describes the credit for Signature Tier only. Premier and Core issuers should not assume a comparable mechanism.

The refund protects the exchange's listing retention as much as the sponsor's liquidity. That is not a criticism. It is a commercial term, and sponsors should price it as one.

What ETF Sponsors Should Decide This Quarter

Immediate effectiveness means the fee schedule applies now. The notice sets October 22, 2026 as the comment deadline, so the terms remain open to public input even as they operate.

Decisions for the leadership team

First, model the tier against expected trading volume. A niche thematic fund and a broad-market product with an institutional anchor do not need the same LMM commitment. The $90,000 spread between Signature and Core should be justified by projected spreads and distribution goals.

Second, get the performance standards in writing before choosing. Ask your general counsel or outside counsel for a one-page summary of the Minimum Performance Standards in Exhibit 5A, including what counts as a performing day.

Third, decide who bears the fee. Whether the fund or the adviser pays the listing fee affects the expense ratio and, for a registered fund, belongs in front of the fund board.

Fourth, revisit the tier as part of the annual budget. Treat the tier as a recurring budget decision rather than a one-time election.

Questions to put on the next board agenda

• What liquidity outcome is the listing fee buying, and how will it be measured?
• How will unused Signature credits be tracked and applied?
• Does the venue choice fit the distribution plan for advisor platforms?