Heath Tarbert, the Chairman of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) stated on Thursday ( 1/30/20 ) that Ethereum Futures could be the essential upcoming product entering the crypto space.
He shared his views that the United States can head this race for both digital and blockchain adoption. Chairman CFTC stated that Bitcoin is ruling the cryptocurrency Futures market; similarly, Ethereum might soon introduce the same product. Moreover, Chairman CFTC Tarbert recently appeared in an interview at Bloomberg, where he shared his views regarding several topics surrounding the cryptocurrency market.
He debated on two popular digital assets, Bitcoin and Ethereum and said that both fall under the jurisdiction of CFTC. He discussed further by sharing agency plans towards the cryptocurrency industry and especially the Futures market.
Tarbert stated:
“We are doing a lot in the digital asset space. We are seeing exchanges started to list; certainly, we have seen Bitcoin Futures, both cash-settled as well as physically-delivered. My guess is we are going to see Ether Futures as well. And as things start to migrate into the commodity space, we will see even more.”
Moreover, President of Bakkt, a platform for Bitcoin Futures trading, Adam White had recently mentioned the Ethereum Futures, and now the president has backed Tarbet’s views. Adam White stated that the CFTC had only stated that they would theoretically approve futures on Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Tarbert further said that he wants the US to lead not only in digital assets, but also in blockchain technology innovations. With this being said, he urged the US to focus on blockchain and digital asset monetization.
Driving Institutional Investors?
As mentioned in a previous article by Visionary Financial, it appears institutional investing is still low in the cryptocurrency space. Bitcoin options activity recently experienced multiple days of zero volume. As outlined initially, option trading can be a good measure of institutional activity as it’s used to hedge institutional portfolios.
Futures on the other hand could help fuel adoption within institutions. The main concern for large financial firms right now is exposing their clients to actual cryptocurrency. Most firms have constraints that disallow their portfolio managers from investing client assets in digital currencies. The difference with futures though is that when a contract is settled, the client / investors are paid in USD not cryptocurrencies.
Futures can technically be one of the easiest ways to get institutions involved in crypto without needing to expose their clients to actual cryptocurrencies. If Ethereum futures are introduced, it will ultimately strengthen market offerings, and potentially create additional comfort among institutional investors that are inching into the space.
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