The Options Clearing Corporation, the largest equity derivatives clearing organization, said Monday it is "preparing for the clearance" of options on spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
"That's a wrap. Now it's just a matter of when not if," Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in a post on X, noting that the listing process after OCC approval is considered relatively quick. Alison Hennessy, Nasdaq's head of ETP Listings, said on Bloomberg's ETF IQ that Nasdaq is ready to go and that IBIT options could be listed "as soon as tomorrow."
The OCC was responding to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Clearing and Risk, which late Friday posted a staff advisory that said ETF options on spot commodity funds are "cleared and settled by the Options Clearing Corporation as the sole issuer of all equity options."
"[I]t is substantially likely these spot commodity ETF shares would be held to be securities," the CFTC advisory states. "Therefore, DCR’s position is the listing of these shares on SEC-registered national securities exchanges does not implicate the CFTC’s jurisdiction, and therefore, the clearing of these options by OCC would be undertaken in its capacity as a registered clearing agency subject to SEC oversight."
Based on that CFTC advisory, the OCC said it is "preparing for the clearance, settlement and risk management of such options, which are subject to the new option listing process."
The OCC could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.
Firms have been looking to list and trade options for their spot bitcoin ETFs following the SEC's approval of 11 spot BTC ETFs in January. The SEC approved BlackRock's proposal to list and trade options for its iShares Bitcoin Trust (ticker IBIT) on Sept. 20, the first step in this process.
Traders use options for speculation, while larger institutions use options to hedge their positions. Since bitcoin has a big retail following, this means it's likely there will be more speculation in bitcoin ETF options when compared to ETF options on equities, market structure analyst Dennis Dick told The Block in September.
Trading volumes for the Bitcoin ETFs have exceeded $500 billion since going live, according to The Block's data dashboard. IBIT commands nearly two-thirds of that market share.
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