The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has now opened the path for Coinbase and other CFTC-registered exchanges to offer regulated access to global crypto derivatives markets.
Coinbase Offers Access To Global Crypto DerivativesCrypto derivatives account for roughly 80% of global crypto trading volume, Coinbase explained, with options, perpetual futures, and other instruments driving most of that activity across international venues.
“Today that changes. Guidance issued by the CFTC positions Coinbase Financial Markets as the first CFTC-regulated FCM to connect US clients to global crypto options and perpetual futures liquidity. US clients will at long last have a fully regulated, compliant solution to access all of crypto’s largest markets,” the company stated.
Coinbase Financial Markets has opened onboarding for institutional clients, offering live access to Deribit options. Perpetual futures and additional collateral types are set to follow with broader client access, including retail, also on the horizon.
CFTC Guidance Opens Regulated PathThe Market Participants Division (MPD) confirmed in its letter that the described perpetual contracts “may be categorized as foreign futures as defined in Commission Regulation 30.1.”
Additionally, the division will not recommend the Commission take an enforcement action against CFM for “posting customer-owned digital commodities and payment stablecoins with CFM’s foreign broker affiliate to margin its foreign futures and foreign options positions on CFM’s affiliate foreign board of trade under circumstances where the foreign broker has obtained a right of re-use over the customer-owned assets.”
At the same time, the CFTC revealed it had issued an Order approving Kalshi to list the BTCPERP Contract, a perpetual contract referencing the spot price of Bitcoin, as a futures contract, making it the company’s first product beyond event contracts.
