Coinbase Opens Crypto Futures Trading to More Retail Customers

Coinbase said American customers can now trade leveraged cryptocurrency futures on Coinbase Financial Markets (CFM).

CFM won approval earlier this year to bring federally regulated crypto futures trading to eligible customers in the United States. Now, Coinbase Advanced customers in the U.S. can trade leveraged crypto futures contracts through CFM, according to a Wednesday (Nov. 1) blog post.

“Futures contracts give traders the ability to seamlessly go long and short, so they can manage risk on their underlying crypto assets,” the post said. “Futures also give traders the ability to trade with leverage, which means that they can access the crypto market with less upfront investment.”

CFM is making futures trading accessible to a broader group of traders by letting them access “nano-sized futures contracts” that offer reduced upfront capital requirements and can be an affordable “option for a broader range of retail customers,” per the post.

U.S. traders can access crypto futures contracts via Coinbase Advanced, a platform “for sophisticated retail traders” that offers tools like advanced order types, TradingView charts, and application programming interfaces (APIs) to automate trading, according to the post.

Traders need a Coinbase account for spot trading before they can set up a CFM futures account, the post said.

Coinbase obtained approval in August from the National Futures Association, a self-regulatory agency backed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to begin offering crypto futures trading.

“This is a critical milestone that reaffirms our commitment to operate a regulated and compliant business and be the most trusted and secure crypto-native platform for our customers,” the company said in an August blog post.

The approval was a victory for Coinbase amid a larger regulatory battle. The company, the largest crypto platform in the U.S., was sued earlier this year by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over alleged securities law violations.

Also Wednesday, bitcoin enjoyed a brief surge to a 17-month high of $35,185 before dropping from the $35,000 mark.

The currency’s rally of 28% in late October, its biggest monthly increase since January, was driven by expectations that the SEC could finally greenlight exchange-traded funds (ETFs) directly investing in the cryptocurrency after years of debate.

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