The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently approved the listing application for Bitcoin spot ETF options. Although approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is still required, many analysts are already excited about the huge potential of the digital asset derivatives market. The director of asset management company VanEck pointed out that the derivatives market potential of Bitcoin alone, which has the largest market value, is 279 times that of traditional finance. However, things are not going so smoothly for Ethereum. SEC information indicates that they will postpone the listing application for Ethereum spot ETF options until November.
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ToggleBlackRock and Bitwise applications delayed until November
According to information released by the SEC on September 24, they postponed BlackRock and Bitwise’s Ethereum spot ETF option applications until mid-November. The SEC said it needed more time to consider the proposal and extended BlackRock's initial 45-day review period.
Nasdaq originally submitted a listing application for BlackRock's iShares Ethereum spot ETF options on July 22. The original review deadline was September 26, but now it has been extended to November 10. Bitwise's ETHW applied one day later than BlackRock, so its application was also postponed to November 11.
Compared to Bitcoin, the Ethereum options market still has room to triple its growth
According to data from The Block, Ethereum options trading volume on major centralized cryptocurrency exchanges in September was $10.46 billion. Bitcoin options trading volume during the same period was approximately $33.9 billion, three times that of Ethereum. As the SEC adds digital assets to the ranks of options trading, there may still be a lot of room for speculation in Ethereum spot ETF options.
On the positive side, bringing Bitcoin or even Ethereum spot ETFs into the scope of options trading would be beneficial to the maturity of the cryptocurrency market. Institutions can hedge risks through options trading, thereby increasing their willingness to include digital assets in their investment options.
In addition, we can also observe what impact the SEC’s attitude towards this type of digital asset derivatives will have on other countries. Although there are also Bitcoin spot ETFs in Canada and other places, their attitude towards derivatives such as options is still conservative. Therefore, users tend to use centralized exchanges such as Deribit, OKX, and Binance to operate digital asset options. If the United States officially launches such products, it may lead other countries to launch digital asset options products.
