The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved stock exchange rule changes that permit the listing of options tied to spot bitcoin ETFs, broadening the investment ecosystem around products that've received billions of dollars of inflows this year.

According to two memos from the SEC published Friday afternoon, NYSE will be allowed to list and trade options on the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC) and the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB). Cboe Global Markets got approval to list and trade options on the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB).

The approval comes several weeks after the SEC approved Nasdaq's rule proposal to allow the listing and trading of options on BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).

Options are derivatives that allow the purchase or sale of an underlying asset – in this case, bitcoin ETFs – at a predetermined price on or before an agreed upon date. Many market participants believe that options trading on bitcoin ETFs will increase institutional interest in crypto and increase overall liquidity.

In its NYSE approval, the SEC wrote that it believes options on the bitcoin ETFs "would permit hedging, and allow for more liquidity, better price efficiency, and less volatility with respect to the underlying Funds," as well as "enhance the transparency and efficiency of markets in these and correlated products."

Regulations Nasdaq Bitcoin ETF CBOE NYSE

Cheyenne Ligon

On the news team at CoinDesk, Cheyenne focuses on crypto regulation and crime. Cheyenne is originally from Houston, Texas. She studied political science at Tulane University in Louisiana. In December 2021, she graduated from CUNY's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, where she focused on business and economics reporting. She has no significant crypto holdings.