The National Futures Association (NFA) has granted Coinbase Financial Markets—an association member—approval to operate as a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) in the United States. This announcement signifies a major milestone for Coinbase, which initially applied to be a registered FCM in 2021, and can now offer US customers BTC and ETH futures contracts.
The NFA is a CFTC-designated self-regulatory organization (SRO) in the United States. An SRO is an entity that exercises limited regulatory authority over a specific industry or market, but it is not a governmental agency. As an FCM, Coinbase will act as an intermediary between traders and futures markets, facilitating the buying and selling of futures contracts, providing trading accounts, and managing these transactions’ clearing and settlement processes.
Coinbase’s FCM approval is a step towards offering transparent, secure markets where customers can access regulated futures contracts—speculative investments based on future price movements of underlying assets.
