Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) shares are on the rise today after the cryptocurrency exchange received the green signal to introduce regulated crypto futures trading to its U.S. customers.
After this approval from the National Futures Association (NFA), the company will now act as a futures commission merchant and its eligible customers can access derivative offerings via Coinbase Financial Markets.
The important milestone for the company comes after a wait of nearly two years. It filed the application with NFA in September 2021. The Coinbase website notes that futures trading is ‘coming soon’ and customers can join a waitlist to have early access.
Worldwide crypto derivatives make up nearly 75% of the global crypto volumes and last year, Coinbase acquired the futures exchange FairX, now called the Coinbase Derivatives Exchange.
Since the acquisition, Coinbase has launched nano Bitcoin (BTC-USD) and Ethereum (ETH-USD) futures contracts and has seen a notional volume of $4.7 billion BTC and $2 billion ETH so far this year.
Overall, the Street has a $80.68 consensus price target on Coinbase alongside a Hold consensus rating. While shares of the company have surged nearly 136% so far this year, short interest in the stock still remains elevated at about 13.5% at present.
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