In what could be a massive move for the cryptocurrency market, futures contracts of the top altcoin, Ether, could likely be approved by the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC].
A senior official at the regulatory body told a media outlet that the CFTC is “willing to approve an ether futures contract provided it ticks all the right boxes.” With the December 2017 roll-out of Bitcoin [BTC] futures contract by the CBOE and the CME setting the market alight, the ether contract could have major implications.
The CFTC, not known to market decisions regarding new contract adoption especially one that involves volatile digital assets, has yet not confirmed the same. However, the federal agency’s senior official stated that the CFTC can be “comfortable” with the prospects of ether derivative under their “jurisdiction.”
CoinDesk reported the senior official as stating,
“A derivatives exchange comes to us and says ‘we want to launch this particular product.’ … If they came to us with a particular derivative that met our requirements, I think that there’s a good chance that it would be [allowed to be] self-certified by us.”
Given the historic price movements that follow the approval of a cryptocurrency futures contract, and if fronted by a large-scale exchange such as the CBOE or the CME, the market could continue its bullish swing, this time spearheaded by Ether. At press time, Ether held a market dominance of just under 10 percent while Bitcoin saw its share grow to a seven-month high.
Back in December 2018, the CFTC stated that it had some fundamental issues with respect to Ethereum futures and hence, delayed any application review the same. Since then, the commission has issued a “Request for Information [RFI],” seeking public feedback on Ether, to understand the crypto’s similarity and difference when compared to Bitcoin, and the prospects of a derivative contract.
Dan Berkovitz, a commissioner with the CFTC stated in March that the agency received “a very good response,” to the RFI. This statement and public feedback were seen by many in the cryptocurrency field as a precursor to the approval of a futures contract.
