Beating Bakkt, LedgerX Is First to Launch 'Physical' Bitcoin Futures in US

Bitcoin derivatives provider LedgerX announced it has launched the first physically-settled bitcoin futures contracts in the U.S. Wednesday.

Any U.S. resident with a government-issued I.D. can now trade futures contracts for real bitcoin.

Revealed exclusively to CoinDesk, LedgerX has officially launched the first physically-settled bitcoin futures contracts in the U.S., beating the Intercontinental Exchange's Bakkt and TD Ameritrade-backed ErisX to the punch.

LedgerX is offering the new product to both institutional and retail investors, allowing anyone who can pass know-your-customer processes to trade the contracts, not just institutional clients with millions in assets.

While LedgerX is not the first bitcoin futures provider in the U.S., it is the first to offer physical futures, meaning customers receive the actual bitcoin they bet on when the contracts expire, rather than the cash equivalent.

"Not only are they delivered physically in the sense that our customers can get bitcoin after the futures expires, but also they can deposit bitcoin to trade in the first place," he said.

LedgerX revealed that it was looking to offer bitcoin futures in April, having filed with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for the requisite licenses in November 2018.

"Given cash contracts are more simple relative to physical contracts, physical contracts would likely be more useful for an institution than retail," he said.

Bitcoin futures have drawn attention in the U.S. since at least 2017, when CME and Cboe announced they were launching cash-settled contracts.

ErisX, like LedgerX, has received the necessary CFTC approvals, though it has not announced a timeline for launching its futures contracts.