The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accepted CME Group's request for review of the Nasdaq Bitcoin Index options and has set August 24, 2026, as the deadline for submitting written comments. Until the Commission makes its next decision, the original approval status of this product remains suspended, and trading cannot be launched.
Continue suspension after review initiation
The SEC issued an order on July 29 and published it in the Federal Register on August 3. The document states that market participants may submit comments in support of or opposition to the order for the Commission’s consideration until August 24.
This arrangement does not mean that the SEC has accepted CME’s legal position. The approval decision made by SEC staff on May 22 under their authority remains suspended, and the matter has now formally entered the review process.
Nasdaq PHLX previously planned to launch a cash-settled, European-style Bitcoin index option with the ticker QBTC. The contract was intended to track the CME CF Bitcoin Real-Time Index, scaled by a factor of 100; final settlement would be based on the New York session version of the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate, also scaled by a factor of 100.
CME advocates for regulation by the CFTC.
CME believes that Bitcoin is a non-security commodity, and options contracts directly tied to Bitcoin's value should be classified as commodity options swaps, thus subject to exclusive regulation by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission under the Commodity Exchange Act.
CME also stated that the previous legal interpretation by the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets was incorrect and exceeded its authority. However, the SEC did not endorse these claims in this review order, nor did it make any determination on the substantive issues.
CME also stated that allowing competing products to proceed along their current path could impose new compliance costs on its exchange and clearing businesses. Therefore, CME requests the Commission to directly revoke its prior approval rather than waiting for another CFTC exemption process to be completed.
Nasdaq still requires additional exemptions.
In contrast to the CME’s view, SEC staff stated in a filing in May that, under specific conditions, the SEC and CFTC could exercise parallel oversight over such products. At the time, Nasdaq also indicated that these products would allow现货比特币 ETF investors to hedge risks within national securities exchanges while using the same margin framework.
However, even if the SEC ultimately reinstates its approval, the product cannot be launched immediately. Nasdaq has previously stated that it still needs to obtain the required exemptions from the CFTC, including permission for the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) to clear this contract without registering as a CFTC derivatives clearing organization. OCC also needs to update its standardized options risk disclosure documents.
Proceed to the next step after August 24.
Next, the SEC will review the written comments submitted by all parties before deciding whether to uphold its previous approval. The current order does not provide a timeline for a final ruling.
The impact of this case may extend beyond QBTC itself. CME warned that if such products are approved, securities exchanges could potentially use this as a basis to launch additional derivatives tied to non-securities commodities under SEC rules. However, this remains CME’s forward-looking legal argument and is not an established outcome confirmed by the SEC.
Currently, the Nasdaq Bitcoin Index Options remain suspended.