The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Trading and Markets, acting under delegated authority, approved Nasdaq PHLX’s proposed rule change for Bitcoin index options on May 22, 2026. The accelerated approval advanced a product designed to place cash-settled Bitcoin price exposure inside the infrastructure used for listed U.S. securities options.
The decision did not mean contracts could begin trading immediately. Nasdaq PHLX acknowledged that it first needed exemptive relief from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, including relief permitting shared SEC-CFTC jurisdiction and allowing the Options Clearing Corporation to clear the contracts. The exchange also could not list the product until OCC received approval to update its standardized options disclosure document for the product’s risks.
That boundary was central to the decision rather than a procedural footnote: the SEC order acknowledged the CFTC’s existing exclusive jurisdiction over commodity options. The May 22 approval therefore cleared one regulatory stage while leaving the proposed market dependent on separate action by another regulator.
How QBTC was designed
The proposed Nasdaq Bitcoin Index Options carried the ticker QBTC. They were structured as cash-settled, European-style contracts, meaning exercise would occur only at expiration and settlement would not require delivery of Bitcoin.
The underlying Nasdaq Bitcoin Index was defined as one-hundredth of the CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index, or BRTI. Under the May 22 record, CF Benchmarks calculated and published the BRTI every 200 milliseconds from aggregated Bitcoin-U.S.-dollar order-book data supplied by qualifying constituent exchanges. CME Group had announced the change from one-second to 200-millisecond publication on May 18, 2026.
Final settlement used a different measurement. The CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate–New York Variant, or BRRNY, observed eligible Bitcoin-U.S.-dollar transactions from 3:00 p.m. through 4:00 p.m. New York time on the expiration date. That hour was divided into twelve five-minute partitions. A volume-weighted median was calculated for each partition, and their arithmetic mean produced BRRNY; the QBTC settlement value was BRRNY divided by 100.
Each option used a $100 index multiplier. The approved rules provided for trading between 9:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eastern time and a 24,000-contract position limit on the same side of the market. The minimum quotation increment would be $0.01 while options on the iShares Bitcoin Trust participated in the Penny Interval Program.
Why the structure mattered
The product differed from an option on shares of a particular spot Bitcoin exchange-traded product. QBTC was designed to reference an aggregated Bitcoin price index directly, without requiring ownership or delivery of Bitcoin and without tying the contract to one fund’s share price.
Nasdaq PHLX told the SEC that this structure could let holders of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products hedge or modify their exposure on a national securities exchange. That was the exchange’s stated rationale, not evidence that the product had attracted liquidity or reduced hedging costs. No QBTC trading volume, open interest or market-price response existed in the May 22 approval record because trading had not begun.
The SEC found the proposed rules consistent with Exchange Act requirements intended to prevent fraudulent and manipulative practices, support a free and open market, and protect investors. Its finding approved the exchange-rule framework; it was not an endorsement of Bitcoin, a forecast of demand or a conclusion that every interagency jurisdictional question had been resolved.
Later context
On June 11, 2026, CME Group filed notice that it intended to seek Commission review. That filing automatically stayed the delegated approval. On July 29, 2026, the SEC granted CME’s petition for review and ordered that the May 22 approval remain stayed pending further Commission action. This later development does not alter what occurred on May 22, but it confirms why the unresolved jurisdictional conditions were material.
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