The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has launched a pilot program allowing Bitcoin, Ether, and USDC to serve as collateral in derivatives markets, part of Acting Chair Caroline Pham's broader push to modernize digital asset oversight. The initiative, which includes new reporting requirements for futures commission merchants, rolls back older restrictions and could accelerate institutional use of tokenized collateral.

Systematic trend followers are reassessing their models after a volatile year marked by sharp reversals, with SocGen's benchmark index still down despite a late rebound. Firms are experimenting with faster signals, options-based timing tools and complementary strategies like defensive equities and dispersion, though skeptics warn these tweaks could erode diversification and increase noise.

Cboe Global Cloud provides access to Cboe market data with as little as an internet connection. Read our e-book to learn how some of our clients are using Cboe data to power their businesses.

HashKey Holdings, Hong Kong's largest licensed crypto exchange, is seeking up to HK$1.67 billion ($215 million) in an IPO that will test the city's ambitions to become a regional digital-asset hub. The deal, backed by cornerstone investors including UBS Asset Management and Fidelity International, comes amid volatile crypto markets and a strong year for Hong Kong listings.

CME Group launched its first FanDuel-linked event contracts and rolled out a wide slate of new listings spanning equity indexes, commodities, economic indicators and sports, capping a surge in year-end product launches across global exchanges. Competitors including ICE, EEX, Cboe and Coinbase also expanded offerings with new power, environmental, equity and crypto derivatives as retail platforms like Robinhood move deeper into the event contract space.

Banks have scaled back short-term FX swaps trading as higher hedging and funding costs, quantitative tightening and shifting liquidity needs push activity toward longer-dated forwards, the BIS reported. While FX swaps still dominate the market at $4 trillion in daily turnover, their share has fallen as interbank forward trading surges and institutions lower hedge ratios amid rising dollar hedging costs.

Coinbase said its move to an in-house risk system, STARK, has sharply improved futures trading, cutting data latency and inconsistency while supporting 24/7 operations and institutional onboarding. The firm reported a fivefold increase in trading volume and tripled user growth since the Q3 2024 migration, citing the system's snapshot-based risk architecture and on-premise, low-latency design.

Crypto.com will impose a three-second delay on sports-betting orders for all non-market-making customers, giving professional traders a timing advantage on its regulated prediction market platform. The move, mirrored by a similar proposal from Kalshi, aims to protect liquidity providers from courtsiding but raises concerns about preferential access as prediction markets court high-speed market makers.

Singapore Exchange is expanding its new crypto perpetual futures while targeting growth in Japanese bond futures and Asian equity derivatives, including China, India and Vietnam benchmarks. Rising liquidity, regulatory liberalization and geopolitical shifts are driving interest across products such as the FTSE China A50, Vietnam 30 and China H50 futures, alongside steady demand for JGB and MSCI-linked contracts.

Bitcoin traders are accumulating deep out-of-the-money June 2026 puts and calls, including a popular $20,000 strike put with over $191 million in open interest, in a bet on long-dated volatility rather than directional price moves. Deribit says the flow reflects professionals using cheap "wing" options to position for extreme swings, even as broader options markets show persistent bearish skew from call overwriting.

Euronext reported an 14.5% year-on-year decline in November derivatives trading to 11.6 million contracts, with equity and commodity segments both weaker. Equity derivatives fell 16.4% on sharp drops in index and single-stock futures activity, while commodity volumes slid 7.4% as open interest contracted across both options and futures.

US Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould pushed back on traditional banks' efforts to slow crypto firms' entry into banking, saying digital-asset applicants should be treated no differently as charter requests rebounded to 14 this year. Gould signaled support for new trust banks, warned against "reputation risk" barriers, and said regulators are preparing updates as the system evolves "from the telegraph to the blockchain."