London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), a U.K.-based stock exchange and financial information company, has announced that it would offer Bitcoin futures and options.
To enable the new service, the financial services giant has partnered with the digital trading platform Global Futures and Options (GFO-X).
- The move will mark Britain's first regulated trading and clearing in Bitcoin index futures and options derivatives.
- LSEG will offer the new clearing service, DigitalAssetClear, through its Paris-headquartered clearing unit dubbed LCH SA.
- The new offering is expected to start in Q4 after receiving approval from French and European Union (EU) regulators.
- The head of LCH DigitalAssetClear, Frank Soussan, stated that Bitcoin futures and options are a rapidly growing asset class and see rising interest from institutional investors.
- GFO-X mainly caters to global institutional investors who want to trade digital asset derivatives.
- The firm is licensed by the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority, the country's financial regulator.
