--- title: "EA Series Trust files to register AFCM with a looser test than its index" url: "https://etf.net/news/ea-series-trust-files-to-register-afcm-with-a-looser-test-than-its-index-2026-10-09" published_at: "2026-10-09T12:06:39.970Z" updated_at: "2026-10-09T12:06:39.970Z" byline: "ETF.net Research" --- # EA Series Trust files to register AFCM with a looser test than its index EA Series Trust filed Thursday, October 8 to register the proposed New Africa Critical Minerals ETF, AFCM, whose 80% test would count companies its index would leave out. By ETF.net Research. Published Oct 9, 2026. EA Series Trust filed Thursday, October 8 to register the proposed New Africa Critical Minerals ETF, AFCM, and the fund's own test for what counts is looser than the index it would track. The prospectus is a draft. The trust cannot sell shares until the registration is effective. The filing asks that the registration become effective 75 days after Thursday, on Tuesday, December 22, and says shares would be offered "as soon as practical after the effective date." It reserves the ticker and leaves the exchange blank. Registrations get amended, and launch dates slip. The fund has not begun operations. Empowered Funds, operating as EA Advisers, would be the adviser. Its platform, ETF Architect, describes EA Series Trust as a turnkey white-label platform for outside managers who want an ETF without building a trust of their own. Gadsden, LLC would choose the investments, and the filing also names Gadsden as the sponsor. ## What the index would hold The proposed fund would try to match the Africa Critical Minerals Index, before fees and expenses. It would generally buy the shares in the index, and it could hold a sample of them when owning every name would be impractical or too costly. New Africa Capital Indices LLC owns the index and wrote its rules. Indxx, LLC calculates it. The index takes its minerals from the U.S. Geological Survey list, and that list can be revised. The filing says it now includes copper, cobalt, nickel, manganese, titanium, uranium, zirconium, aluminum, the platinum group metals, and the rare earth elements. The four largest names are capped at 9.5%, and the next ten at 4.5%. Those caps can be exceeded only if that is what it takes for the weights to add to 100%. The index is reset quarterly, on the third Friday of March, June, September and December. No more than 35% of the index can be tied to any one African country. A company is counted entirely toward the African country that accounted for the largest share of its African revenue or, if it has no revenue yet, toward the country that holds the largest share of its audited reserves. ## Who would stand behind it The management fee is blank, and that blank line is the annual cost. The draft estimates other expenses at 0.00% because the adviser would pay the fund's ordinary operating costs out of that fee. Distribution fees are marked none. Gadsden, as sponsor, would take what is left of the fee after the fund's costs and the adviser's cut. If the fee fell short, Gadsden would have to reimburse the adviser. Martin Ganda, a portfolio manager for Gadsden, is named to run the fund day to day. The filing has not finalized the bracketed text that describes him as president of New Africa Capital Indices, the index owner, and that says the role would let him see index changes before they are public. The filing says the index owner is not affiliated with the adviser or with Gadsden, except in that same unfinished language. ## Funds already on the market The Sprott Critical Materials ETF, SETM, holds companies tied to materials used in the energy transition and charges 0.65% a year. Its index looks for companies that get at least 50% of their revenue, or hold at least 50% of their assets, from that work. Sprott's fund is global, not limited to Africa. The VanEck Africa Index ETF, AFK, holds African companies across industries and charges 0.76% a year. Materials companies are its largest group, at 32.43% as of Friday, October 9, and financial companies are nearly as large, at 31.95%. ## A wider test than the index Under normal conditions, the fund would keep at least **80%** of its net assets in companies it calls economically tied to critical minerals in Africa. The filing sets that test beside stricter rules for the index. Table: Test, Fund's 80% rule, Index rule For inclusion, the index also requires a listing on a named exchange in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Europe or Australia, a market value of at least $250 million in shares available to trade, and average daily trading of at least $2.5 million over six months. The index excludes a company more than 20% owned by a state firm from China, Russia, Iran or North Korea, or one that gives such a firm the right to name a director, with a narrow exception for some joint ventures. It also excludes companies on the U.S. Treasury sanctions list, and companies convicted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for conduct in the past ten years. The filing says the 80% rule can be changed without a shareholder vote, on written notice. On revenue, the Africa index uses a 50% bar, the same revenue figure SETM uses. The filing says the fund would track the stricter index. The 80% test in the same document would still let it count companies the index would not admit. Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/ea-series-trust-files-to-register-afcm-with-a-looser-test-than-its-index-2026-10-09. Please cite the page URL.