(Bloomberg) -- Nasdaq Inc. is planning to list options on BlackRock Inc.’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, possibly as soon as Tuesday, allowing investors to use derivatives to bet on or against the world’s largest digital asset.
“Our intent at Nasdaq is to list and trade these options as early as tomorrow,” Alison Hennessy, head of ETP listings at Nasdaq, said on Bloomberg’s ETF IQ on Monday. “Getting these options listed on IBIT into the market I think will be very exciting for investors because that’s really what we have heard from them.”
Hennessy says Blackrock has been working with regulators for over 10 months to make this happen.
The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (ticker IBIT) has amassed nearly $30 billion in assets since its launch, by far the biggest in the cohort.
The move comes after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a notice that cleared the way for the Options Clearing Corporation to oversee the market.
Having options on an ETF expands the trading possibilities, says Eric Balchunas at Bloomberg Intelligence, and will ultimately drive volumes and assets into the product.
“These group of ETFs did not need this. They are successful on their own merit. But this is a pretty big tailwind to an already juggernaut situation,” said the ETF senior analyst. “Options allow you have to express opinions on something with more specificity.”
--With assistance from Scarlet Fu.
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