(Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved asset management firm BlackRock’s bitcoin exchange-traded fund to be listed on the Nasdaq and for options trading.
The regulator said in a notice on Friday that options trading on BlackRock’s fund, iShares Bitcoin Trust, has been approved under the ticker symbol “IBIT.”
Index options on the Bitcoin index – exchange-traded derivatives that offer a quick and cheap way to expand exposure to Bitcoin – offer institutional investors and traders an alternative to hedge their exposure to the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
The approval of the listing and trading of options linked to a Bitcoin ETF marks another positive step for cryptocurrencies, once considered an emerging asset class.
Since the launch of a Bitcoin ETF earlier this year, the cryptocurrency has been moving closer to the mainstream.
Options give the holder the right to buy or sell an asset, such as a stock or an exchange-traded product, at a pre-determined price by a set date.
Exchanges began taking applications for spot Bitcoin ETF options as soon as it became clear that the SEC would approve the underlying ETF in January.
The SEC is overseeing the technical rule changes that exchanges must make to list options, and the regulator said its existing oversight procedures also apply to IBIT options.
(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi)