LSEG partners with digital trading platform to offer bitcoin futures and options

LONDON, April 13 (Reuters) – London Stock Exchange Group ( LSEG.L ) has teamed up with Global Futures and Options ( GFO-X ) to offer Britain’s first regulated trading and clearing in bitcoin index futures and options derivatives, the companies said on Thursday.

The UK, which aims to become a global hub for crypto-technology, earlier this year launched a public consultation on future rules for crypto-assets, which are currently unregulated.

Licensed by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, GFO-X is a start-up platform aimed at global institutional investors looking to trade digital asset derivatives.

LSEG’s Paris-based LCH SA clearing unit will introduce a new, segregated clearing service, DigitalAssetClear, for cash-settled dollar digital assets traded on GFO-X.

The new service is expected to start in the fourth quarter of this year, pending approval from French and European regulators.

“GFO-X is taking the first steps to extract efficiencies from new technologies within a traditional market structure, with the goal over time to deliver 24/7 trading to global regulated digital asset markets,” GFO-X said in a statement.

Rival CME Group (CME.O) already offers bitcoin futures and options, while CBOE (CBOE.Z) bought a digital asset exchange, ErisX.

Deutsche Boerses (DB1Gn.DE) Eurex is to launch dollar and euro futures on the FTSE bitcoin index next Monday.

GFO-X’s inclusion of a well-established mainstream clearing house is aimed at reassuring investors following collapses in the crypto sector, including the FTX exchange.

“Recent market events in digital asset trading have highlighted the need for a safe, regulated venue where large financial institutions can trade at scale while keeping their clients’ assets protected,” said Arnab Sen, CEO and co-founder of GFO-X.

Frank Soussan, head of LCH DigitalAssetClear, said bitcoin index futures and options are a fast-growing asset class, with increasing interest among institutional investors.

“We look forward to working with both GFO-X and market participants to build a fluid, regulated marketplace for these products, and contribute to their safe growth and development,” Soussan said.

LSEG owns the data and analysis business Refinitiv, formerly a division of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters has a minority stake in LSEG, and LSEG pays Reuters for news.

Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Mike Harrison and Susan Fenton

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