The CBOE announced that Ethereum Futures may well be introduced in the near future as the US Securities and Exchange Commission does not consider Bitcoin and Ethereum to be securities.

SEC provides clarity for Ethereum

Announcement by the US Securities and Exchange Commissioner William Hinman at San Francisco’s Yahoo Financials all market summit Crypto that there will be no change to the Securities Law and that Ethereum is a decentralized currency and therefore not as “Eliminates an important stumbling block for Ether futures,” said Chris Concannon, president of Cboe Global Markets Inc.

Hinman explained that if there is no reasonable expectation that a third party will benefit from an asset (in this case, Ether), it should not be considered a security. If the network on which the token exists is “sufficiently decentralized,” it can not be considered a security investment. The SEC director was quoted by Bloomberg as saying:

“Putting aside the fundraising that accompanied the creation of Ether, based on my understanding of the present state of Ether, the Ethereum network and its decentralized structure, current offers and sales of Ether are not securities transactions.”

CBOE: SEC Regulation opens the way for Ether Futures

This long-awaited clarity over whether crypto assets are regulated as securities has prompted President Concannon of Cboe Global Markets to speculate that regulators would now prefer to rely on Ether futures. Both the Cboe and the CME have been offering Bitcoin futures since the end of 2017 and strive to do the same with Ethers.

“We are pleased with the SEC’s decision to provide clarity with respect to current Ether transactions, This announcement clears a key stumbling block for Ether futures, the case for which we’ve been considering since we launched the first Bitcoin futures in December 2017.”

The news is not so good for Ripple, as Hinman may consider XRP to be a security. Ripple spokesman Tom Channick seemed to dismiss this in advance via an email saying: