Nasdaq Inc. and broker Cantor Fitzgerald LP are looking to join the rush on Wall Street to trade bitcoin, which hit a record on Wednesday.

Nasdaq aims to launch bitcoin futures in the first half of 2018, according to people familiar with the situation.

Separately, Cantor said it is seeking to launch bitcoin derivatives on an exchange it owns, also in the first half of next year. The moves come after two major Chicago exchange operators announced similar plans for the digital currency.

Many financial institutions have been reluctant to get into bitcoin due to its notorious volatility and its lingering association with money laundering and other criminal activity.

Investor interest has grown as the digital currency has exploded in value. Bitcoin is up more than 10-fold since the start of the year. It was trading at $10,214.22 late Wednesday afternoon after hitting a record of $11,377.33 earlier in the day, according to CoinDesk.

The emergence of bitcoin futures would be a big step toward maturity for the cryptocurrency, which is less than a decade old. By letting traders bet on whether bitcoin rises or falls, a futures market would make it easier for both big banks and retail investors to trade bitcoin.


Nasdaq’s bitcoin contract would debut on Nasdaq Futures, or NFX, a marketplace that the New York-based exchange group launched in 2015 that until now has mainly focused on energy trading, according to the people familiar with the situation.

One of the people said Nasdaq is trying to differentiate itself from rivals CME Group Inc. and CBOE Global Markets Inc.—the two Chicago exchange groups that have announced plans to launch bitcoin futures—by designing a futures contract that better tracks the world-wide price of bitcoin. Nasdaq has briefed market participants on its plans, this person added.

Nasdaq isn’t completely new to bitcoin. It lists an exchange-traded note linked to the digital currency on one of its European exchanges.

Cantor, a global financial firm founded in 1945 whose businesses range from bond brokerage to investment banking to real estate, unveiled its bitcoin-derivatives plans in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Investment manias throughout the centuries have ranged from tulips to tech stocks to housing; is bitcoin different? Image/Video: Daniel Epstein

The firm aims to launch a bitcoin swap—a type of derivative—on Cantor Futures Exchange LP. Cantor’s swap would allow traders to bet on bitcoin prices up to three months out, with built-in protections to limit their losses if bitcoin prices swung above $15,000 or below $5,000.


The firm expects retail traders to be the initial adopters of the new contract, but it is targeting institutional players too, executives said.

“The asset class is not going away,” said Shawn Matthews, chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., the firm’s brokerage arm. “If you look at the next level, it will be the institutions coming in and being larger participants in the marketplace, especially as liquidity gets better.”

Cantor’s exchange is a backwater of futures markets, with a few thinly traded contracts tied to weather events, foreign-exchange rates and gold. But it does have a valuable asset: a license from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, meaning it would be easier to launch bitcoin futures on Cantor’s exchange than to create a new futures exchange from scratch.

The exchange last drew attention in 2010 when it attempted to introduce a futures contract based on the box-office results of Hollywood movies. Following intense opposition from film-industry lobbyists, Congress banned futures tied to movies’ financial performance, thwarting Cantor’s plan.


Separately, Nodal Exchange LLC, a decade-old U.S. futures exchange specializing in electricity and natural gas trading, is exploring whether to launch cryptocurrency futures, a person familiar with the matter said. Nodal’s parent company is majority-owned by German exchange Deutsche Börse AG.

Such upstarts could face tough competition from more established futures exchanges. CME, the world’s biggest exchange group, is seeking to launch bitcoin futures as soon as the second week of December. CBOE is aiming to launch its bitcoin futures by early 2018, the company has said. Both CME and Cboe’s planned contracts are under review by the CFTC.

Bitcoin was invented by an anonymous creator known as Satoshi Nakamoto and began trading in 2009. As bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have gained popularity, the space has become an attractive opportunity for exchanges, industry veterans say.

“Every research department of every regulated exchange is saying, ‘Can we do this?,’” said John D’Agostino, a former Nymex executive who sits on the boards of several funds that trade or are considering trading cryptocurrencies.


Futures exchanges often struggle to attract liquidity and interest in new products. But the boom in digital currencies will make such product launches easier, he added.

“The majority of costs associated with that are marketing. If people want to trade this thing, why wouldn’t you?” Mr. D’Agostino said. “This is a gift from the heavens.”

Write to Stephanie Yang at stephanie.yang@wsj.com and Alexander Osipovich at alexander.osipovich@dowjones.com