In theory, the issuance of futures contracts on Ether could be authorised in 2020, but this has not yet been substantiated.
The hypothesis was put forward by Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) President Heath Tarbert who, speaking at DC Fintech Week in Washington, stated that he believes it is likely that ETH futures contracts will be approved in the next six months or a year.
He also added that he believes this opportunity will be explored by the market, suggesting that within a year someone could come forward and seek approval from the CFTC itself.
To date, however, there is no such request for approval from the CFTC, as confirmed by Tarbert himself, and some of the initiatives launched in the past seem to have failed.
To a specific question about the existence of similar requests submitted to the CFTC, Tarbert replied:
“None that I know of. My guess is that it will come soon but I don’t know where they’re coming from”.
The fact that the CFTC has put BTC and ETH on practically the same footing in this respect does not necessarily mean that the market considers the two cryptocurrencies in the same way.
In addition, some initiatives related to the issuance of bitcoin futures have also been discontinued in recent months, probably due to lack of interest from the markets, to the point that so far this specific market is dominated by a single product. The same CME, which issues that product, has so far made it known that it is not interested in issuing futures on other cryptocurrencies.
If Tarbert’s hypothesis turns out to be correct, it is possible to imagine that in the next few months someone will come forward, considering the openness of the CFTC in this regard. For the moment, however, there is no indication to suggest that such a hypothesis is probable.
But the crypto markets have accustomed us to sudden changes and unexpected movements, so the current situation may well change at any time, in a rather unpredictable way.
