The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved Nasdaq to list Bitcoin index options, marking another step in the growing integration between Wall Street and digital assets.
The new instruments will give US equity traders another way to gain exposure to Bitcoin’s price movements, beyond options linked to spot Bitcoin ETFs such as the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF and similar funds.
The derivatives were approved on an “accelerated basis” by the SEC, according to an order posted on the regulator’s website on Friday.
The Bitcoin options will be cash-settled, European-style contracts, meaning investors will not face the risk of early exercise, unlike options linked to Bitcoin ETFs.
While the contracts have received approval from the SEC, they still require final clearance from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission before trading can begin, according to the SEC order. The contracts will track the CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index, which updates Bitcoin price data from crypto exchanges every 200 milliseconds.
Bitcoin options are already traded in the US, with CME Group offering options on Bitcoin futures since 2020. However, the new Nasdaq-listed contracts would bring Bitcoin options into the equity market, potentially broadening investor access.
The SEC’s conditional approval “represents an important step in expanding regulated, transparent access to digital asset derivatives,” Nasdaq head of US options David Barrett said via email.
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has strongly supported the expansion of crypto trading in the US. Much of global crypto derivatives activity, however, still takes place on offshore platforms such as Binance and Hyperliquid. In a May 8 speech, Atkins noted that the collapse of FTX Group in 2022 highlighted the risks of operating digital asset trading platforms offshore.
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“The experience of offshore growth and the implosion of FTX demonstrates the folly of pretending that Americans will not be harmed if we do not address innovative technologies and thereby force them offshore,” he said at the time.
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