US Cryptocurrency Exchange ErisX Receives License for Crypto Futures

Chicago-based crypto exchange ErisX has procured a derivatives clearing organization (DCO) license from the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

According to an official blog post on July 1, ErisX is planning to make digital asset futures contracts available for trade on its regulated derivatives market later this year via its new DCO.

ErisX also launched its spot market in April, with the promise of eventually rolling out a single digital asset platform for spot and futures trading.  At press time, the ErisX spot market exchange includes U.S. dollar trading pairs with bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC).

Laurian Cristea, General Counsel at ErisX, remarked that when the digital asset futures become available, the exchange will offer a single platform that accommodates both spot and futures trading.

In addition to now having a DCO license, ErisX has reportedly held a Designated Contract Market (DCM) license since 2011. According to ErisX CEO Thomas Chippas, the exchange stands apart from others in using a DCO and DCM two-stream system to separate trading and settlement:

“ErisX is unique in that for our digital asset market, we have divided the trading and settlement functions using traditional DCM (exchange) and DCO (clearing) models... This reflects the structure that institutional investors expect from other asset classes and will help drive these markets toward greater relevance and accessibility.”

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the CFTC also granted a DCM license to the regulated crypto derivatives and clearing platform LedgerX in June. According to the CFTC announcement, LedgerX previously had a DCO, and is just now obtaining DCM registration.

The CFTC is also apparently in talks with Facebook about its upcoming virtual currency Libra.