Coinbase Derivatives Exchange to Offer Institutional Bitcoin and Ether Futures

Coinbase Derivatives Exchange, the regulated futures offering by crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN), will offer bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) tracked futures for institutional clients starting June 5, it said in a Thursday release.

Coinbase said it created these products to cater to increased institutional demand following the issuance of its nano Bitcoin (BIT) and nano Ether (ETI) contracts last year.

The BTI and ETI futures contracts, sized at 1 bitcoin and 10 ether per contract respectively, will be settled in U.S. dollars monthly and let institutional traders hedge market bets, express long-term market views, or utilize the products in complex trading strategies.

At current prices, BTI and ETI are worth $30,000 and $20,000 in notional value respectively.

Coinbase said BTC and ETI are offered at “significantly lower fees” compared to traditional offerings, although these fees were not mentioned as of Friday.

Crypto derivatives markets are a popular, albeit mostly unregulated, market among participants with over $134 billion in notional volume traded across exchanges in the past 24 hours, data shows, with bitcoin and ether tracked products amounting to over $25 billion of these volumes.