The president of the U.S. arm of FTX, the world’s second-largest Bitcoin exchange, said that the company aims to offer crypto derivatives trading to American customers within a year.
Speaking to Business Insider on Aug 12, FTX.US president Brett Harrison said that he is hopeful that stateside clients will be able to trade crypto derivatives soon.
He added that the company is currently in negotiations with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) which regulates the U.S. derivatives market, according to the report.
“Quite frankly, we could have or should have started a long time ago, but we’re definitely interested in going through the process and collaborating with the CFTC to be able to offer those products in the US.”
The California-based exchange offers a limited range of products and services compared to its international counterpart. FTX derives a huge portion of its revenue from derivatives trading, however, the U.S. version of the exchange can only offer spot trading due to regulatory restrictions.
Regulatory hurdles
The United States is a minefield when it comes to crypto regulation and legislation with ever-shifting sands and lethargic bureaucracy, especially where finances are concerned.
Harrison stated that there are two possible routes to their goal, applying for a license from scratch, or acquiring a firm. Both possibilities are being explored, he added but declined to mention any potential acquisitions. Speaking to Business Insider, he explained:
“We fully intend to go through in one form or another, so that we could eventually become a licensed derivatives exchange. The ability to trade crypto derivatives on an exchange like FTX.US is an enormous source of potential for us as a business.”
Last month, crypto billionaire and owner of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, said that the U.S. has “an enormous amount of potential growth, there just isn’t near that much business going on there right now as you would expect, given the size of the economy.”
Harrison added that the company hopes to expand its retail base as institutional volume currently comprises roughly 70% of the trading volume of FTX.US.
On Aug 11, BeInCrypto reported that FTX had partnered with Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, taking the investor on in an ambassadorial role.
FTX OI reaches $5.5B
According to CoinGecko, FTX is ranked fifteenth in terms of normalized 24-hour spot volume which it reports to be $1.46 billion. In terms of derivatives open interest, it is ranked second after Binance with $5.5 billion in OI (total value of outstanding derivative contracts that have not been settled).
CoinMarketCap ranks FTX, which reduced its leverage last month, at seventh for derivatives trading with a 24-hour volume of $9.3 billion and OI of $3.9 billion.
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