Derivatives Platform ErisX Launches First ETH Futures Contracts

The cryptocurrency derivatives platform ErisX is launching Ethereum ETH futures contracts as it announced in a blog post on Monday. The new contracts which are the first futures contracts for the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap in the US will start trading effective immediately as the firm announced in the cryptonews.

The move comes a few days after ErisX announced that it had received a virtual currency license from the New York Department of Financial Services and would start offering trading services in what is the nation’s most stringest regulatory regime.

“Starting today individual and institutional investors can access physically delivered futures contracts based on ETH-USD with monthly and quarterly expirations. The ErisX futures exchange trades alongside the ErisX spot market on a unified and innovative platform enabling price transparency and collateral efficiencies,” the blog post said.

The physically settled ETH futures contracts by the derivatives platform ErisX deliver actual tokens upon expiry, rather than the fiat equivalent. The firm began offering Bitcoin futures last year, though it sees little trading volume according to its Futures Volume and Open Interest page.

The Ether (ETH) futures have long been under consideration by US regulators. In May 2019, an official with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was in the Ethereum news for saying that it would be willing to approve the ETH futures, if the proposed contracts met the regulatory requirements.

The CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert, who took office last summer, echoed these remarks in 2019, going so far as to anticipate the launch of Ether futures contracts in 2020. “It is my view as chairman of the CFTC that ether is a commodity,” he said in October.

The derivatives platform ErisX also talked about Ethereum (ETH) as a cryptocurrency and its blockchain in the blog post, stating:

“The Ethereum network is the leading programmable blockchain delivering real-world value to enterprises, governments, and individuals. As the digital fuel for the network, Ether is structured similarly to commodities traded in traditional capital markets today.”

They also noted that they are committed to being the leader in the crypto space by marketing an innovative and unified platform for spot and regulated futures.