The product will be the first futures contract for Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) when it launches.
Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Dogecoin (DOGE) will all be available for purchase through cash-settled futures contract products on April 1, according to Coinbase Derivatives, the derivatives division of the US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. The announcement was made in response to Dogecoin’s “enduring popularity” and its meteoric climb from meme to industry mainstay.
On March 7, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) received the filing for these new futures contracts. Even before the CFTC gives its formal OK, Coinbase Derivatives has already announced that it plans to offer futures contracts on its platform. As an institutional platform, Coinbase Derivatives intends to use the “self-certification” approach, which will enable it to release the products subject to their compliance with the Commission’s regulatory standards.
In a letter attached to the Dogecoin futures product, Coinbase Derivatives […] said that it would be launching the contract for trading on the Exchange starting on or after April 1, 2024, and that it was submitting the listing for self-certification.
According to Coinbase, the memecoin has grown into a crucial part of the cryptocurrency market, which is why they decided to offer Dogecoin futures.
The price of DOGE increased by 17% after the news and was trading at $0.15 as of writing. According to data compiled by CoinGecko, the token’s price has risen 8.1% in the last 24 hours, reaching $0.163.
Coincident with this announcement’s timing is a development from Elon Musk’s social network X, whose financial venture arm is X Payments LLC. X Payments has reportedly received more licenses to facilitate the launch of X’s payment capabilities, as stated in the update. Musk has been hinting about potential connections with Dogecoin’s blockchain since at least late 2022, and he is a backer of the cryptocurrency.
The decision to publish futures contracts by Coinbase has prompted some experts to wonder whether the company is trying to exert pressure on the SEC. In a post on X on March 20, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart speculated that the filings may be an effort to stop the SEC from labeling any cryptocurrency asset that has the same proof-of-work consensus process as Bitcoin as a “security.”
Beginning in 2022 with the acquisition of the CFTC regulated FairX derivatives exchange, Coinbase entered the crypto derivatives trading space.
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