Coinbase Applies to the National Futures Association for Trading Crypto Futures

Digital currency exchange Coinbase is working hard to become a qualified cryptocurrency derivatives commission merchant.

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, submitted an application to become a registered futures commission merchant (FCM) with the National Futures Association (NFA) on Wednesday. The registered company is named “Coinbase Financial Markets Inc.”

Coinbase confirmed on Twitter today, stating that this move is aimed at further expanding the crypto economy, and saying that:

“This is the next step to broaden our offerings and offer futures and derivatives trading on our platforms.”

Reportedly, Coinbase becomes a member of the FCM approved by the NFA and needs to be approved by the U.S. derivatives regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

For a long time, the cryptocurrency derivatives market has become a rapidly developing market. Most well-known cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, OKEx, FTX, etc., provide investors with options and futures trading options. Coinbase is no exception.

According to CoinGecko’s data, the market for cryptocurrency derivatives has reached $2,287,884,826,880, and more than $133 billion transactions have been processed in the past 24 hours.

Market leader crypto exchange Binance leads in 24-hour open interest, with open interest exceeding $10,000 million, far out of the second place FTX exchange (Derivatives) with 24-hour open interest holdings at around $7,000 million.

Due to regulatory uncertainty, many US exchanges are staying away from this fast-growing market.

A few days ago, Coinbase also issued a $1.5 billion aggregate principal amount of its Senior Notes to potential investors to the public.

Image source: Shutterstock