SEC Clears Nasdaq Cash-Settled Bitcoin Index Options; CFTC Exemption Still Needed

ChainThink reported on May 24, citing FinanceFeeds, that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved Nasdaq to list cash-settled Bitcoin index options on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol QBTC. The product is a European-style option tied to the Nasdaq Bitcoin Index, which represents one-hundredth of the CME CF Bitcoin Real-Time Index. Its reference price updates every 200 milliseconds. Contracts settle in cash: at expiration, holders receive the difference between Bitcoin's spot price and the strike price, with no physical delivery. The SEC set a minimum trading increment of $0.01 and capped single-side positions at 24,000 contracts, an amount described as roughly 0.12% of Bitcoin's circulating supply. Because Bitcoin is treated as a commodity in the U.S., the product must secure an exemption from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) before trading can begin. The approval is part of a broader push by SEC Chair Paul Atkins to bring crypto markets more fully within the formal regulatory framework.