The SEC has suspended its approval of Nasdaq’s cash-settled Bitcoin index options — ticker QBTC — putting the product on hold while it reviews a jurisdictional challenge from rival exchange operator CME Group.
Nasdaq’s Phlx exchange had won conditional SEC approval for the options in May on an expedited basis, with contracts designed to track the Nasdaq Bitcoin Index, itself derived from the CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index. CME filed a formal challenge in mid-June, arguing that because bitcoin is legally treated as a commodity, any options tied to its value should fall under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s exclusive authority rather than the SEC’s. The full SEC commission has now granted CME’s petition for review, staying the earlier approval and opening a public comment period running through August 24.
CME’s position centers on the fact that it already operates its own regulated bitcoin futures and options markets, and that allowing Nasdaq’s product to launch without registering under the CFTC framework governing CME would let a securities exchange compete for the same order flow while sidestepping commodities oversight. The petition also flagged a broader concern: that letting the approval stand could set precedent for securities exchanges to list derivatives on other commodities more generally.
If CME’s argument prevails, Nasdaq would either need to register QBTC under CFTC rules or redesign the contracts entirely to reference a security, such as a spot bitcoin ETF, instead of the commodity itself. Until the commission rules, the product remains shelved — another sign of how listed bitcoin derivatives increasingly sit at the boundary between the SEC’s and CFTC’s overlapping authority.
