“It’s an important milestone for the digital currency market broadly,” said Paul Chou, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. trader, who is LedgerX’s chief executive. Contracts for other digital currencies including for Ethereum’s ether are expected to follow, as well as longer-term protection. Other platforms that offer options trading are Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, owned by Seychelles-incorporated HDR Global Trading Ltd., and Deribit of Amsterdam. In 2015, the CFTC ordered bitcoin options trading platform Derivabit, which was based in California, to cease operations as it hadn’t followed regulatory procedures. Chou said the ability to hedge digital assets will attract institutional investors who had been on the sidelines.

Source: Mint July 25, 2017 14:48 UTC