The SEC cleared Nasdaq PHLX to list Nasdaq bitcoin options on May 22. Seventy two days later the contracts still do not trade, and the holdup came from a rival exchange rather than from anything the regulator found wrong with the product.
CME Group filed notice on June 11 that it intended to petition the Commission for review of that approval. The petition itself landed June 18. On July 29 the Commission granted it, set August 24 as the deadline for written statements, and left the approval order stayed pending further order.
CME's case rests on jurisdiction. Bitcoin is a commodity, the argument runs, so options priced off it belong to the CFTC and not the SEC. That line has been drawn and redrawn all year, most visibly in the fight between New York and Kalshi.
The stay has run 52 days without a hearing
Read the order granting the petition and the procedural shape gets clearer. The May clearance for Nasdaq bitcoin options went through on an accelerated basis, the fast track. Rule 430 of the Commission's Rules of Practice then let CME suspend it by filing a notice. No hearing. No finding on the merits.
By August 24 the stay will have run 74 days, and that date only closes the briefing. Nothing in the July 29 order commits the Commission to decide by any particular week. An agency that has moved fast on crypto approvals for a year has now spent a quarter sitting on one it already granted.
Nasdaq's contract settles on a CME benchmark
The approval order spells out what QBTC actually references. The underlying is the CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index divided by 100. Final settlement uses the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate New York Variant, also divided by 100, calculated from trades between 15:00 and 16:00 New York time as a volume weighted median across twelve five minute partitions.
The filing designates CF Benchmarks Ltd as the reporting authority. A committee that Crypto Facilities and CME set up jointly guards the methodology behind both rates. So the contract CME wants pulled would have priced and settled on numbers CME helps govern, and the licensing relationship survives whichever way the jurisdictional point goes.
| QBTC specification | Term |
|---|---|
| Underlying index | CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index / 100 |
| Settlement value | CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate New York Variant / 100 |
| Settlement window | 15:00 to 16:00 New York time |
| Contract multiplier | $100 |
| Position limit | 24,000 contracts per side |
| Exercise | European, cash settled |
What the August deadline actually settles
Very little by itself. Statements from CME, from Nasdaq and from anyone else who files arrive that day. After that the Commission can affirm the approval, reverse it, or hand the filing back.
A CME win would not erase Nasdaq bitcoin options. The exchange would have to register the venue with the CFTC or rebuild the contract on a security, which in practice means writing it against a spot bitcoin ETF, and either route restarts a filing open since 2025. The venue that once ran 57 percent of crypto derivatives is closing this year, so who gets to list regulated bitcoin options matters to the firms still standing. Watch the docket on August 24 for whether anyone beyond the two exchanges files.
