US Institutional Investors Gain Access to Global Crypto Derivatives via Coinbase Partnership
Through its partnership with Deribit, Coinbase now provides qualified institutional investors in the United States with entry to international cryptocurrency perpetual futures and options trading platforms.
Through its regulated futures commission merchant entity, Coinbase Financial Markets has launched services that provide institutional clients in the United States with entry to international cryptocurrency perpetual futures and options markets, featuring integration with Deribit's platform for crypto options trading.
According to Coinbase, the service introduction follows regulatory direction from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that permits regulated futures commission merchants to facilitate connections between clients in the US and international liquidity pools for crypto derivatives. The firm noted that Coinbase Financial Markets represents the first futures commission merchant with CFTC regulation to provide this type of market access.
Following Coinbase's acquisition in August 2025 as the company broadened its footprint in crypto derivatives, Deribit currently operates as the dominant crypto options trading venue measured by open interest.
Data from CoinGlass indicates that on May 27, Deribit maintained approximately $31 billion in open interest for Bitcoin options, a figure that dwarfs the $2.7 billion recorded on OKX, the $1.8 billion on Binance, and the $1.2 billion on Bybit.
Based on the announcement released Friday, the onboarding process for institutional clients can commence right away, with expanded availability that encompasses retail participants anticipated to arrive at a later date.
Crypto derivatives move deeper into regulated US markets
This development arrives several months following announcements from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and CFTC indicating their willingness to examine methods for bringing perpetual futures trading to domestic markets. Through a collaborative statement issued in September 2025, both regulatory bodies indicated that perpetual contracts had predominantly remained in offshore cryptocurrency markets as a result of regulatory and jurisdictional limitations.
The regulators further noted their consideration of potential measures to "onshore perpetual contracts" and redirect activity "now flowing exclusively to foreign platforms" toward US markets operating under regulatory oversight.
Following that development, derivatives trading platforms in the United States have progressively broadened their cryptocurrency product lines. This month saw CME Group reveal intentions to introduce a crypto index futures contract that follows a collection of seven cryptocurrencies, which includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETG), Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP).
This revelation followed by just days the Chicago-based CME's introduction of Bitcoin Volatility futures, a regulated product in crypto derivatives with a planned launch date of June 1. These futures contracts will settle based on a 30-day expected Bitcoin volatility metric calculated from CME options markets.
Additional cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the US have similarly been extending their derivatives operations. During May, Payward, the parent company of Kraken, finalized its purchase of Bitnomial, a derivatives platform regulated by the CFTC that introduced the first futures contracts in the US tied to Injective's INJ (INJ) token under regulatory approval earlier this year, after previously launching a comparable product for Aptos (APT) during January.
In a Friday release, CFTC staff published guidance addressing 24/7 trading, clearing and settlement operations, stating that derivatives based on crypto assets may be especially appropriate for continuous, around-the-clock market operations.