In a move that may surprise many in the cryptocurrency world, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that LedgerX has officially been granted status as a Swap Execution Facility (SEF).
This represents a major hurdle in the company’s overarching plan of becoming the first federally recognized exchange able to trade Bitcoin options. The final step to this major achievement is the approval from the CFTC as a Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO). Once this has been granted, LedgerX will be the “first federally regulated Bitcoin options exchange and clearinghouse to list and clear fully-collateralized, physically-settled Bitcoin options for the institutional market.”
The company is now among a very rare breed of only 25 financial groups who have SEF status including Bloomberg and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The company had been held back by the need for additional capital to collateralize its trades but was able to garner enough support in a recent round of capital raising.
Some would argue that the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies demands that government regulatory boards be kept from influencing them. However, their growing popularity has led some to call for greater levels of regulation in order to provide the necessary stability for institutional investors to take part.