On Dec. 1, 2017, two Chicago exchanges filed papers to list bitcoin futures. CME Group and the Cboe Futures Exchange used self-certification, a process that lets an exchange list a new contract on its own say1. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, chaired by J. Christopher Giancarlo, announced the filings that same day. Giancarlo's agency chose to let them stand. Was that a regulator stepping back, or stepping in?
The record answers both ways. This piece follows the papers from that day to a 2023 court ruling that turned on the same contracts.
How self-certification works
Self-certification is a filing. An exchange tells the CFTC that a new contract meets the law, then lists it. The Futures Industry Association described the timing: an exchange may certify “by the close of business one day and then list the product for trading the next day”3.
Giancarlo put the history in numbers. From 1922 until a 2000 law, "less than 800 products were approved," he wrote2. "Since then, exchanges have certified over 12,000 products."
So the CFTC's choice in December 2017 was narrow. Giancarlo wrote that Congress designed the process on purpose2. His agency could review and push, or try to block it. CFTC staff reviewed and pushed. Staff talked with CME for six weeks and with Cboe for four months1. The exchanges agreed to changes in contract design, settlement and, at CME, margin.
Giancarlo's Dec. 1 statement opened with one line. “Bitcoin, a virtual currency, is a commodity unlike any the Commission has dealt with in the past,” he said1. The same release said the process "is not a Commission approval".
Both sides, in their own words
Did self-certification serve the people who trade them?
“The CFTC’s response to the self-certification of Bitcoin futures has been a balanced one”
“by the close of business one day and then list the product for trading the next day”
Launch week
Cboe went first. Its contract debuted on Sunday, Dec. 10, 2017, and traded "nearly 4,000 contracts during the full session," Reuters reported in a story Fortune carried4. CME followed on Dec. 17. Reuters counted 287 CME contracts early in that session.
Margins showed the caution. CME asked for 35% and Cboe for 40%, against 5% for an S&P 500 futures contract, analysts told Reuters4.
That launch story covered price, volume and margin. Reuters left out the filing route and the industry fight over it.
The clearing firms object
Objections came from inside the futures industry. On Dec. 7, 2017, Walt Lukken, the chief executive of the Futures Industry Association, sent Giancarlo an open letter3. His members clear trades and pay into the funds that cover a default.
“We believe that this expedited self-certification process for these novel products does not align with the potential risks that underlie their trading and should be reviewed,” the Futures Industry Association wrote3. The letter added that clearing members “will bear the brunt of the risk associated with them through their guarantee fund contributions and assessment obligations, even if not participating in these markets directly”.
Read the last clause. The firms on the hook included firms that stayed out of bitcoin futures.
Giancarlo answers the Senate
On Feb. 6, 2018, Giancarlo defended the call before the Senate Banking Committee. His written testimony described a "heightened review" of both contracts2. Giancarlo also put the market in proportion.
Open interest is the number of contracts still open9. At CME it stood at 6,695 bitcoin on Feb. 2, 2018, and at Cboe it was 5,569 bitcoin2. The combined notional amount was about $94 million. CME's crude oil futures, by contrast, carried about $170 billion.
“The CFTC’s response to the self-certification of Bitcoin futures has been a balanced one,” Giancarlo testified. “It has resulted in the world’s first federally regulated Bitcoin futures market.”2 He argued that blocking the contracts “would have ensured that virtual currency spot markets continue to operate without effective and data-enabled federal regulatory surveillance for fraud and manipulation”.
Giancarlo also changed the process. CFTC staff would now ask exchanges what they did “to gather and accommodate appropriate input from concerned parties, including trading firms and FCMs”2. FCMs, or futures commission merchants, are the brokers that clear trades. That was the clearing firms' complaint, written into a checklist.
What the market became
The CFTC's Traders in Financial Futures report starts its CME bitcoin series on April 10, 20185. That first report showed 1,702 open contracts. Each contract covers 5 bitcoin. The report sorts holders by type. Asset managers are pension funds, endowments, insurers and mutual funds6. Leveraged funds are "typically hedge funds and various types of money managers," in the Commission's words.
Cboe's contract faded. Its last weekly report in the CFTC data is dated May 7, 201912. CME's grew.
The first jump came from a fund. ProShares' bitcoin futures ETF, BITO, debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 19, 2021, holding CME contracts7. Open interest went from 7,039 contracts on Sept. 28, 2021 to 16,671 on Oct. 26, 20215. CoinDesk reported CME passing Binance as the largest bitcoin futures venue on Oct. 22, 20218.
SEC chair Gary Gensler gave the CFTC credit on CNBC on Oct. 19, 2021. “What you have here is a product that's been overseen for four years by the U.S. federal regulator CFTC, and that's being wrapped inside of something within our jurisdiction called the Investment Company Act of 1940, so we have some ability to bring it inside of investor protection,” he said7.
Four years ran back to Giancarlo's December 2017 decision.
CME's open bitcoin futures contracts more than doubled in October 2021, to 16,671
Contracts open on each month's last weekly CFTC report; one contract covers 5 bitcoin
- BITO launch month and first spot ETF month
- Every other month in the span
- Height: Open contracts
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 2020 | 12,665 contracts | |
| Nov. 2020 | 12,336 contracts | |
| Dec. 2020 | 10,653 contracts | |
| Jan. 2021 | 10,787 contracts | |
| Feb. 2021 | 10,572 contracts | |
| March 2021 | 9,322 contracts | |
| April 2021 | 8,429 contracts | |
| May 2021 | 8,893 contracts | |
| June 2021 | 6,788 contracts | |
| July 2021 | 7,802 contracts | |
| Aug. 2021 | 6,362 contracts | |
| Sept. 2021 | 7,039 contracts | |
| Oct. 2021 | 16,671 contracts | ProShares' BITO began trading on Oct. 19, 2021 |
| Nov. 2021 | 13,197 contracts | |
| Dec. 2021 | 12,468 contracts | |
| Jan. 2022 | 11,756 contracts | |
| Feb. 2022 | 11,007 contracts | |
| March 2022 | 12,024 contracts | |
| April 2022 | 10,709 contracts | |
| May 2022 | 10,900 contracts | |
| June 2022 | 13,707 contracts | |
| July 2022 | 14,957 contracts | |
| Aug. 2022 | 14,440 contracts | |
| Sept. 2022 | 14,271 contracts | |
| Oct. 2022 | 14,854 contracts | |
| Nov. 2022 | 16,832 contracts | |
| Dec. 2022 | 16,028 contracts | |
| Jan. 2023 | 17,542 contracts | |
| Feb. 2023 | 15,161 contracts | |
| March 2023 | 14,409 contracts | |
| April 2023 | 14,064 contracts | |
| May 2023 | 11,715 contracts | |
| June 2023 | 18,829 contracts | |
| July 2023 | 16,017 contracts | |
| Aug. 2023 | 16,172 contracts | |
| Sept. 2023 | 14,844 contracts | |
| Oct. 2023 | 19,603 contracts | |
| Nov. 2023 | 23,027 contracts | |
| Dec. 2023 | 22,526 contracts | |
| Jan. 2024 | 20,679 contracts | Spot bitcoin ETFs began trading in January 2024 |
| Feb. 2024 | 25,229 contracts | |
| March 2024 | 31,238 contracts | |
| April 2024 | 24,795 contracts | |
| May 2024 | 30,255 contracts | |
| June 2024 | 30,171 contracts | |
| July 2024 | 28,605 contracts | |
| Aug. 2024 | 29,817 contracts | |
| Sept. 2024 | 30,542 contracts | |
| Oct. 2024 | 33,787 contracts | |
| Nov. 2024 | 40,510 contracts | |
| Dec. 2024 | 33,893 contracts | |
| Jan. 2025 | 34,317 contracts | |
| Feb. 2025 | 32,060 contracts | |
| March 2025 | 29,036 contracts | |
| April 2025 | 26,966 contracts | |
| May 2025 | 31,964 contracts | |
| June 2025 | 31,352 contracts | |
| July 2025 | 28,068 contracts | |
| Aug. 2025 | 27,481 contracts | |
| Sept. 2025 | 26,874 contracts | |
| Oct. 2025 | 28,717 contracts | |
| Nov. 2025 | 26,260 contracts | |
| Dec. 2025 | 20,166 contracts | |
| Jan. 2026 | 24,276 contracts | |
| Feb. 2026 | 22,919 contracts | |
| March 2026 | 20,631 contracts | |
| April 2026 | 21,692 contracts | |
| May 2026 | 21,625 contracts | |
| June 2026 | 18,336 contracts | |
| July 2026 | 20,019 contracts | |
| Aug. 2026 | 22,216 contracts | |
| Sept. 2026 | 19,596 contracts |
The second jump came with spot bitcoin ETFs, which began trading in January 202411. Open interest hit 40,510 contracts on Nov. 26, 20245. The weekly high in the series is 42,524, on Dec. 17, 2024. By Oct. 6, 2026, open interest was 21,432.
Who held those contracts? At the end of 2018, asset managers held 80 long contracts and leveraged funds held 2,389 short ones5. By the end of 2023, the counts were 11,862 and 12,649. At the end of 2024, leveraged funds held 23,835 short contracts.
Leveraged funds' short CME bitcoin contracts rose from 2,389 in 2018 to 23,835 in 2024
Contracts held at each year's last CFTC report, by trader type and side; each covers 5 bitcoin
- Asset managers, long
- Leveraged funds, short
- Height: Contracts held
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Asset managers, long | Leveraged funds, short |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 80 contracts | 2,389 contracts |
| 2019 | 159 contracts | 1,840 contracts |
| 2020 | 620 contracts | 8,466 contracts |
| 2021 | 5,554 contracts | 8,104 contracts |
| 2022 | 5,941 contracts | 6,690 contracts |
| 2023 | 11,862 contracts | 12,649 contracts |
| 2024 | 10,520 contracts | 23,835 contracts |
| 2025 | 7,075 contracts | 13,026 contracts |
CoinDesk tied the later decline to the basis trade, in which traders buy spot bitcoin and sell futures to capture the premium11. By Dec. 22, 2025, Binance held about 125,000 bitcoin in open interest against about 123,000 at CME, CoinDesk reported, citing CoinGlass data. CME had led since November 2023, CoinDesk wrote.
The court case that ran through CME
Those contracts became the hinge of a later fight. In 2023 the D.C. Circuit weighed Grayscale's suit against the SEC. The SEC had approved funds holding CME futures and denied Grayscale's fund holding bitcoin itself10.
Judge Neomi Rao wrote for the court on Aug. 29, 2023. “Grayscale presented uncontested evidence that there is a 99.9 percent correlation between bitcoin’s spot market and CME futures contract prices,” she wrote10. She also noted that the exchanges listing both kinds of fund had "identical surveillance sharing agreements with the CME".
CME's surveillance carried both cases. The court vacated the SEC's denial10.
The case for the decision
Giancarlo's case rests on visibility. Blocking the contracts, he testified, would have left bitcoin trading in spot markets with little federal surveillance2. The listings gave his staff position data, open interest and margin figures to watch1.
Later records back part of that. A regulated market grew to 42,524 open contracts at its weekly peak5. Gensler, then the SEC chair, called it four years of oversight7. A federal court then used its prices as evidence10.
The case against the process
Lukken's group disputed the method and left the market alone. Its letter asked for "a robust public discussion among clearing member firms, exchanges and clearinghouses" on margin, trading limits and stress tests3. Lukken's members said they carried risk they had little say over.
Giancarlo answered part of the point in his own testimony. He added a step asking exchanges to show how they gathered input from trading firms2. On the letter's larger request, a review of self-certification itself, he held his ground. “The CFTC’s current product self-certification framework has long been considered to function well,” he testified.
Size cuts both ways too. By CoinDesk's account, CME open interest fell through 2025 as the basis premium shrank from about 15% a year to about 5%11.
What to watch
Watch the weekly CFTC report. Open interest stood at 21,432 contracts on Oct. 6, 2026, about half its December 2024 peak5. If asset managers' long positions rise back toward 11,862, as at the end of 2023, the institutional demand Giancarlo's market drew is returning. A further fall in the leveraged short count from 23,835 would match a basis trade still unwinding11.
Sources
- CFTC, "CFTC Statement on Self-Certification of Bitcoin Products by CME, CFE and Cantor Exchange," Release 7654-17, Dec. 1, 2017, https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/7654-17
- J. Christopher Giancarlo, "Written Testimony of Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo before the Senate Banking Committee, Washington, D.C.," Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Feb. 6, 2018, https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/opagiancarlo37
- Walt Lukken, "Open letter to CFTC chairman Giancarlo regarding the listing of cryptocurrency derivatives," Futures Industry Association, Dec. 7, 2017, https://www.fia.org/fia/articles/open-letter-cftc-chairman-giancarlo-regarding-listing-cryptocurrency-derivatives
- Reuters, "Bitcoin Trading at CME, the World's Largest Futures Exchange," Fortune, Dec. 17, 2017, https://fortune.com/2017/12/17/cme-bitcoin-futures-trading-launch/
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission, "Traders in Financial Futures, Futures Only: BITCOIN - CHICAGO MERCANTILE EXCHANGE (code 133741)," weekly reports from April 10, 2018 to Oct. 6, 2026, read Oct. 13, 2026, https://publicreporting.cftc.gov/resource/gpe5-46if.json?cftc_contract_market_code=133741
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission, "Traders in Financial Futures: Explanatory Notes," read Oct. 13, 2026, https://www.cftc.gov/idc/groups/public/@commitmentsoftraders/documents/file/tfmexplanatorynotes.pdf
- Tanaya Macheel, "First bitcoin futures ETF rises more than 4% in trading debut on the NYSE," CNBC, Oct. 19, 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/19/first-bitcoin-futures-etf-rises-2percent-in-trading-debut.html
- Omkar Godbole, "CME Takes Over as Largest Bitcoin Futures Exchange as BITO Pushes Limits," CoinDesk, Oct. 22, 2021, https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/10/22/cme-becomes-largest-bitcoin-futures-exchange-as-bito-nears-position-limits
- Krisztian Sandor, "Bitcoin ETF Excitement Drives Wall Street Giant CME Above Binance in BTC Futures Rankings," CoinDesk, Nov. 10, 2023, https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/11/10/cme-topples-binance-as-top-bitcoin-futures-exchange-as-crypto-etf-excitement-soars
- Neomi Rao, "Grayscale Investments, LLC v. Securities and Exchange Commission, opinion of the court," U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Aug. 29, 2023, https://media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/docs/2023/08/22-1142-2014527.pdf
- James Van Straten, "CME loses top spot to Binance in bitcoin futures open interest as institutional demand wanes," CoinDesk, Dec. 22, 2025, https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/12/22/cme-loses-top-spot-to-binance-in-bitcoin-futures-open-interest-as-institutional-demand-wanes
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission, "Traders in Financial Futures, Futures Only: BITCOIN-USD - CBOE FUTURES EXCHANGE (code 1330E1)," weekly reports from Dec. 19, 2017 to May 7, 2019, read Oct. 13, 2026, https://publicreporting.cftc.gov/resource/gpe5-46if.json?cftc_contract_market_code=1330E1