2 weeks ago
The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved Nasdaq’s connection to database cash-settled Bitcoin scale options connected the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.
The options are European-style contracts tied to the Nasdaq Bitcoin Index, a benchmark that tracks 1 one-hundredth of the CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index, which updates with information from large cryptocurrency exchanges each 200 milliseconds. The support was granted connected an accelerated ground and published Friday connected the SEC’s website.
The caller contracts are cash-settled, meaning holders person the quality betwixt the Bitcoin spot terms and the onslaught terms astatine expiration. Unlike options connected spot Bitcoin ETFs, determination is nary carnal Bitcoin progressive and nary hazard of aboriginal assignment, offering traders an alternate mode to stake connected the terms of the cryptocurrency.
Source: SEC
The contracts volition commercialized nether the ticker QBTC connected Phlx, with a minimum increment of $0.01 and a presumption bounds of 24,000 contracts per side, equivalent to astir 0.12% of Bitcoin’s outstanding supply, the SEC noted successful its order.
Related: $1.26B Bitcoin ETF outflows spark ‘contrarian’ bargain signal: Santiment
CFTC support inactive needed
Despite the SEC greenish light, the options cannot statesman trading until the Commodity Futures Trading Commission grants its ain exemptive alleviation owed to Bitcoin’s classification arsenic a commodity, which falls nether the CFTC’s jurisdiction.
CME Group, which has offered Bitcoin futures options since 2020, filed a remark missive successful October past twelvemonth arguing the contracts autumn nether CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction. In the filing, the SEC noted that Section 717 of the Dodd-Frank Act is not constricted to “novel derivative products” and allows for concurrent jurisdiction betwixt the SEC and CFTC erstwhile the second grants exemptive relief.
“The conception of shared jurisdiction betwixt the Commission and the CFTC is not new,” the SEC wrote successful the filing, citing existing examples specified arsenic mixed swaps and information futures.
Related: Nasdaq and S&P 500 Closed At Record Highs arsenic Tech Stocks Rallied
SEC grows much crypto-friendly
The SEC, nether Chairman Paul Atkins, is moving toward a much crypto-friendly regulatory posture. Atkins has moved to drop respective high-profile enforcement cases against crypto firms that were initiated nether the erstwhile administration, and has publically called for clearer regulatory frameworks that promote innovation alternatively than stifle it.
As Cointelegraph reported, the bureau is preparing an “innovation exemption” that would allow blockchain-based tokenized trading of nationalist institution shares connected decentralized crypto platforms, adjacent without the consent of the companies being tracked.
Magazine: Guide to the apical and emerging planetary crypto hubs — Mid-2026
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