$ETH: Coinbase Derivatives Exchange Perfectly Times Launch of Its Nano Ether Futures Product

Coinbase Derivatives Exchange seems to have found the perfect time to launch its second listed crypto derivatives product, i.e. Nano Ether futures (ET).

As you may already know, on January 12, Coinbase announced that it was “acquiring FairX, a CFTC-regulated derivatives exchange”, that this acquisition was “a key stepping stone on Coinbase’s path to offer crypto derivatives to retail and institutional customers in the US,” and that this acquisition was “expected to close in Coinbase’s first fiscal quarter.”

Then, on June 24, Coinbase published a blog post, in which Boris Ilyevsky, Head of Coinbase Derivatives Exchange, announced that its first listed crypto derivatives product — Nano Bitcoin futures contract (BIT) — would be launched on June 27; each BIT contract is sized at 1/100th of a bitcoin.

Ilyevsky then provided details on how BIT futures would initially be made available:

“Initially, BIT futures will be available for trading via several leading broker intermediaries, including retail brokers EdgeClear, Ironbeam, NinjaTrader, Optimus Futures, Stage 5, and Tradovate, and clearing firms ABN AMRO, ADMIS, Advantage Futures, ED&F Man, Ironbeam and Wedbush.“

He then mentioned that once Coinbase receives regulatory approval on its own futures commission merchant (FCM) license, it would be able to provide “margined futures contracts” directly to its clients.

This new product was designed for (advanced/experienced) retail traders:

“Our BIT Futures contract will offer the same benefits but is built with the retail trader in mind. At 1/100th of the size of a Bitcoin it requires less upfront capital than traditional futures products and creates a real opportunity for significant expansion of retail participation in US regulated crypto futures markets.“

Well, yesterday, Ilyevsky published another blog post, this time to announce that Coinbase Derivatives Exchange would be launching its second list crypto derivatives product — Nano Ether futures contract (ET) — on August 29 (i.e. around one week before the start of Ethereum’s Merge upgrade starts), as the exchange tries to make the crypto futures market more easily accessible to retail traders; each ET contract is sized at 1/10th of an ether.

Coinbase’s Nano Ether futures contract (ET) starts trading on Sunday (August 29) at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET).

Here are some important details about the ET contract:

It is important to note that the two indexes powering Coinbase’s Nano Bitcoin futures and Nano Ether futures are the MarketVector Coinbase Bitcoin Benchmark Rate (ticker: CBBR) and the MarketVector Coinbase Ethereum Benchmark Rate (ticker: CETBR) respectively, which were developed as a collaboration between global cryptocurrency market data provider CryptoCompare and MarketVector Indexes GmbH (“MarketVector”); these two indexes were then licensed to Coinbase. CryptoCompare is the data provider and calculation agent for both $CBBR and $CETBR Indices.

On May 6, MV Index Solutions GmbH (MVIS), which “develops, maintains and licenses the MVIS and BlueStar Indexes”, announced that it had “changed its name to MarketVector Indexes GmbH (MarketVector), effective 13 April 2022.”

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