Ethereum futures will be launched in 2020, forecast of the head of the CFTC commission

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Heath Tarbert expects Ethereum (ETH) futures to be launched in 2020.

“It is likely that futures contracts will appear in the period from six months to a year,” he said during a speech at a fintech week at Georgetown University.

I have no idea how much they will attract trading volume. This is up to the market. ”

Recently, Tarbert has already stated that CFTC can approve futures for the second largest cryptocurrency. However, at the last event, he announced that he was not aware of the existence of companies that would take the initiative in this direction.

“I assume that they will be launched soon, but I don’t know who will stand behind it,” he added.

Tarbert also clarified that the decision on the approval of Ethereum futures would be made on the basis of specific applications. Companies may resort to a self-certification tool or ask the CFTC to approve it. The process will be the same as when launching bitcoin futures .

“In the past, many preferred not to use self-certification. They came to us, especially if they created a new exchange from scratch or a clearing center for derivatives. Therefore, I think that to a large extent this will be determined by those who want to add them to their trading platform, ”he said.

According to Tarbert, currently about four cryptocurrency- oriented exchanges are interested in working with derivative products, as well as larger companies that already offer their customers the opportunity to trade bitcoin futures.

In addition, the head of CFTC confirmed that his department can recognize the status of exchange goods for cryptocurrencies.

“In the near future, other derivatives for cryptocurrency assets will appear on the market,” he said, noting that thousands of digital currencies may need to be valued. – SEC is working on this issue, we and other regulators too. I can’t say for sure that this will happen so soon, because even the evaluation of bitcoin and ether took us a lot of time. ”

Tarbert explained that the ability to launch certain crypto derivatives will depend on the SEC, which continues to evaluate digital currencies for compliance with the definition of a security, and added that the instrument can move from a security category to exchange-traded goods and vice versa, but did not give specific examples.

Publication date 10/22/2019
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