Expanding the futures market landscape, Coinbase to launch micro Bitcoin futures by the end of the month, with contract size of only 0.01 BTC.

Coinbase, which has recently undergone layoffs, seen its stock price hit a new low, and scaled back its operations, has officially announced its entry into the futures market. It will launch its first cryptocurrency derivatives trading at the end of this month. In addition, Coinbase Pro, which offers advanced trading functionalities, is expected to shut down this year, with its features being migrated to the main Coinbase platform and integrated into a unified account.

Coinbase Derivatives Exchange

Coinbase announced on 1/13 that it has acquired the compliant derivatives exchange "FairX" regulated by the U.S. CFTC.

This move aligns with a trend among many industry players in the U.S. to push for cryptocurrency derivatives, such as FTX US acquiring LedgerX last October, and Crypto.com revealing their agreement to acquire Nadex and the Small Exchange towards the end of last year as reported.

According to the announcement, Coinbase is currently awaiting approval from regulatory bodies for a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) license and plans to launch the CFTC-regulated Bitcoin futures contract, Nano Bitcoin futures BIT, on 6/27.

Coinbase emphasizes that the design of the BIT futures product takes retail traders into consideration, with each contract representing only 1/100th of a bitcoin, and believes that additional product development will significantly grow Coinbase's business.

For comparison, the CME Bitcoin futures contracts are based on 5 BTC, while the Micro Bitcoin futures contracts are based on 0.1 BTC.

Coinbase Integrates Advanced Trading on Main Site

Since 2018, Coinbase has separated its trading business into Coinbase.com and Coinbase Pro, with the former catering to retail traders similar to a fiat-to-crypto platform, and the latter targeting advanced traders with features like order books and candlestick charts.

However, to access other features of Coinbase, users had to constantly transfer funds between Coinbase Pro and the main site. The company aims to streamline this process so that users can access both advanced trading tools and other features on the main site within the same platform.

The company also stated that they will maintain the lower fee structure of Coinbase Pro. The advanced trading features on the main site were launched in March this year and will be available on the mobile app in the coming weeks, with the specific date for Coinbase Pro's closure yet to be determined.