Coinbase To Bring Global Crypto Derivatives To US Institutions After CFTC Nod

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.

On Friday, Coinbase announced that its subsidiary, Coinbase Financial Markets (CFM), has become the first US-regulated Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) to offer its domestic clients access to global crypto derivatives markets.

Crypto 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.

However, US customers haven’t had regulated access to this multi-trillion-dollar market until now. As a result, some institutional customers had to establish offshore entities to access these markets and take on additional counterparty exposure and infrastructure costs.

“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.

According to the announcement, US clients can now access global crypto perps and options on futures without offshore workarounds through Coinbase Financial Markets, including access to Deribit, which holds over $31 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) options open interest.

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.

The announcement follows a Friday statement from the CFTC confirming the categorization of certain crypto asset perpetuals as “foreign futures,” as well as a non-action letter regarding FCM transfers of customer crypto assets to foreign brokers as margin.

The 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.”

Coinbase and its CEO, Brian Armstrong, thanked CFTC Chairman Michael Selig and the regulatory agency for “recognizing that US customers deserve regulated access to these critical markets.”

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.

Meanwhile, Selig affirmed that today’s action to onshore crypto asset perpetuals “reflects the CFTC’s commitment to fostering responsible innovation while ensuring that these novel products are traded on regulated exchanges that uphold customer protections and market integrity.”