Rob Hocking, global head of derivatives at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), disclosed that the exchange is studying the conversion of Bitcoin and Ethereum continuous futures products into perpetual futures. Continuous futures are traditional derivatives with rolling expiration dates, while perpetual futures are crypto-native instruments without expiry, anchored to the spot price via a funding rate mechanism.
This exploration follows the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) prior approval of Kalshi's cryptocurrency perpetual futures, which paved a regulatory path for other registered U.S. exchanges to offer similar products. Perpetual futures are extremely popular in the cryptocurrency trading space, particularly on offshore exchanges like Binance and Bybit. If CBOE successfully completes the conversion, it would bring an innovative digital asset derivative to the compliant U.S. market. However, Hocking did not provide a specific timeline for the potential conversion, indicating that the process remains in the evaluation stage.