Cboe ‘reached an agreement on terms’ with Coinbase for bitcoin ETFs

Latest amendments mirror language that already existed in Nasdaq’s filing related to the BlackRock’s proposed product

article-image

rafapress/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe), an exchange seeking approval from the SEC to list several spot bitcoin ETFs, has resubmitted its applications with slight amendments regarding its surveillance-sharing agreement with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

The amendments appear to signal Cboe’s attempt to mirror language already included in filings by rival exchange Nasdaq, which would list the spot bitcoin ETFs for BlackRock and Valkyrie, if approved. 

Cboe is the planned listing exchange for proposed bitcoin products by 21Shares (in tandem with Ark Invest), as well as for similar offerings by Fidelity, WisdomTree, VanEck and Invesco.

In earlier filings, the exchange had indicated its intention to establish a surveillance-sharing agreement (SSA) with a US-based spot trading platform for bitcoin, and subsequently specified that Coinbase would be the platform involved.

Read more: How ‘surveillance-sharing’ is designed to deter bitcoin ETF manipulation

Now, Cboe filings appear to have been amended to note that the exchange “reached an agreement on terms” with Coinbase to enter into an SSA.

Coinbase’s stock price was up about 10% on the day late Tuesday morning.

Spokespeople for Cboe and Coinbase did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart noted Cboe’s amendments in a Tuesday tweet, adding that the filings also now note Cboe and Coinbase “will finalize and execute a definitive agreement that the parties expect to be executed prior to allowing trading of the commodity-based trust shares.”

Though the language in the Cboe filings are now in line with that within Nasdaq’s filing for the BlackRock spot bitcoin ETF, Seyffart said in a separate tweet that Nasdaq “seems to be farther along than Cboe/others even with these updates.”

Loading Tweet..

According to a filing made by Nasdaq on June 29 regarding the BlackRock filing, the exchange stated that it had “reached an agreement on terms” with Coinbase on June 8, and the corresponding term sheet became effective on June 16. In the Cboe filings, it is mentioned that similar agreements with Coinbase were reached on June 21.

The Cboe amendments come nearly a month after BlackRock — a multi-national investment company with roughly $9 trillion in assets under management — shocked many by entering the race to launch a spot bitcoin ETF. This development prompted several issuers who had previously attempted, but failed, to introduce such ETFs to renew their efforts.

Morgan Creek Capital founder Mark Yusko said during an On the Margin podcast that the SEC could allow BlackRock to launch first.

Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital assets research, said last month the SEC should approve all the spot bitcoin ETF proposals at once.

“Given the nearly identical ETF applications submitted, we believe all issuers should have the same timeline to a bitcoin spot ETF,” Sigel tweeted at the time. “Stop picking winners!”


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template.jpg

Research

The BitcoinOS team is the first to have developed and posted a ZK-compressed proof on the Bitcoin network. Other proof verification efforts have been limited to the Signet or testnet deployments. Their work has resulted in the development of BitSNARK, a software library for ZK-compressed fraud proofs on the Bitcoin network. The project aims to provide a horizontal scaling solution, offering a one-stop shop for teams interested in developing a rollup on Bitcoin. This approach shares similarities with the horizontal tech stack scaling in other ecosystems like Cosmos and Optimism, particularly in its focus on simplified verification, bridging standards, and lightweight interoperability.

/

article-image

A16z’s State of Crypto report shows that DeFi has the largest number of daily active addresses, with stablecoins following closely behind

article-image

G2 is delivering real-world performance breakthroughs at 50-100 Mgas/s, Conduit says

article-image

World Liberty Financial’s token sale debuted just as an absurd AI-fueled memecoin captured crypto’s attention

article-image

Coinbase hired History Associates in 2023 to assist in retrieving records from the SEC and FDIC

article-image

Hours after pledging to support Black men’s rights to safely invest in crypto, VP Harris’s Monday night speech mentioned blockchain zero times