Nasdaq aims to list Bitcoin exchange options in the US.
US securities exchange Nasdaq aims to list Bitcoin (BTC) options linked to the CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index (BRTI), the spot price benchmark for BTC, according to an April 27 announcement.
Pending regulatory approval, the listing of Nasdaq Bitcoin Index Options (XBTX) will be a major milestone in expanding the maturity of the digital asset market, Greg Ferrari, Nasdaq's vice president and head of exchange trading management, said in a statement.
The news is the latest in a flurry of activity around BTC options in the US. In August, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) of America and the Nasdaq International Securities Exchange (ISE) issued four filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) related to the listing of BTC options.
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In the year On August 8, US exchange Cboe filed an amended application for BTC options with the SEC. Nasdaq's proposed XBTX options differ from past proposals because they track benchmark data rather than an exchange-traded fund (ETF). Bloomberg predicts that BTC options will continue to rise in the fourth quarter.
“There is definitely some movement in Bitcoin ETF options,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seifert wrote in an August 8 post on X.
Options on crypto derivatives ETFs are already trading. Source: Bloomberg Intelligence
Options are contracts that give the right to buy or sell – “call” or “put” in trader's parlance – an asset based on a certain price. They are commonly used as blocking devices and are also popular with speculators.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) announced plans to launch bite-sized Bitcoin futures tied to the same benchmark in September.
Investors in the US are currently allowed to trade options that track the performance of BTC, but not ETFs that physically hold Bitcoin.
Cryptocurrency derivatives on regulated exchanges are growing in popularity in the US. As of August 20, open interest in CME BTC futures contracts was approaching 30,000, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Each CME Bitcoin futures contract is 5 BTC in size.
Open options interest on BTC futures ETFs — which measures the notional value of all active calls and contracts — exceeded the market close by more than $3.25 billion on Aug. 9, according to Industry Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) data. ).
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