Cboe unveils 'perpetual-style' futures for Bitcoin and Ethereum

Cboe plans to roll out Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) "perpetual-style" futures products, known as Continuous Futures, with a 10-year expiration.

Cboe to offer institutional investors regulated Bitcoin and Ethereum perpetual-style futures

Cboe Global Markets announced on Monday that it plans to launch its new Cboe Bitcoin Continuous Futures (PBT) and Cboe Ether Continuous Futures (PET) on the Cboe Futures Exchange (CFE) on December 15, pending regulatory approval.

The products are designed to give traders extended exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum through contracts with a 10-year expiration at listing, while maintaining daily cash adjustments.

"As perpetual futures have historically been traded offshore, Cboe is excited to help expand access to these products within a US-regulated, transparent, and intermediary-friendly environment," said Rob Hocking, Global Head of Derivatives at Cboe, in a Monday statement.

This structure creates a perpetual-style position without requiring investors to roll over contracts, while still offering the familiar advantages of traditional futures, including capital efficiency, volatility management, tactical trading opportunities, and the ability to take short positions.

The PBT and PET contracts will reference the Cboe Kaiko Real-Time Rate for Bitcoin and Ethereum, intended to keep futures prices closely aligned with the spot market movements. Both products will be cash-settled and cleared through Cboe Clear US, a structure intended to reduce counterparty risk.

"The structure of Cboe's Continuous Futures is designed to enable streamlined and efficient portfolio and risk management, while providing investors a controlled way to gain some leveraged exposure to digital assets," Hocking added.

Cboe said margin requirements will comply with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) standards and be published transparently. The exchange also noted that traders may be eligible for cross-margining benefits alongside other CFE products cleared by Cboe Clear US, including its financially settled Bitcoin (FBT) and Ether (FET) futures.

The PBT and PET contracts differ from actual perpetuals, as they will operate on a 23-hour-a-day, five-day-a-week schedule from Sunday to Friday, running from 6 PM ET to 5 PM ET.

"These continuous futures eliminate the operational friction of rolling positions while maintaining the transparency and oversight that regulated markets provide," said Anne-Claire Maurice, Managing Director of Derived Data at Kaiko.

Similar to Cboe's move, the Singapore Exchange also announced plans to launch Bitcoin and Ethereum perpetual futures, with trading set to begin on November 24, as it seeks to capture growing institutional demand for digital asset derivatives.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) also announced plans last month to launch 24/7 trading for crypto futures.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are down nearly 5% over the past 24 hours at the time of publication.