B3, the Brazilian Stock Exchange, confirmed that within 6 months it intends to launch its first official product aimed at the cryptocurrency market: Bitcoin futures trading. The group’s chief financial officer, André Milanez, made the announcement during a conference call on Monday.
Milanez did not give many details about how the product works. It is not yet known whether B3 will form a partnership or directly offer Bitcoin futures trading, but it was stated that the time frame for launching this product is relatively short. “We plan to launch bitcoin futures in the next three to six months”said.
Currently in Brazil, institutional and retail investors can trade 11 ETFs through B3 with exposure to cryptocurrencies, including CRPT11 from Empiricus with Vitreo; Investo’s NFTS11; QBTC11, QETH11 and QDFI11 all from QR Assets and META11, HASH11, BITH11, ETHE11, DEFI11, WEB311 all from Hashdex. In addition, in Brazil there are more than 25 investment funds approved by the Securities Commission (CVM) that offer different types of exposure to the cryptoactive market.
In January, Jochen Mielke de Lima, director of information technology at B3, had already said that the Brazilian exchange would launch several products with exposure to cryptocurrencies in 2022, including Bitcoin futures and Ethereum futures.
At that moment, The executive highlighted that the Brazilian stock exchange had been closely watching the cryptocurrency market from a technological point of view since 2016.
According to the statement, B3 only needed to resolve the question of whether the negotiations would be done against the US dollar or against the Brazilian real. Futures contracts need a reference index, so if the team chooses the native currency of Brazil, it will be necessary to compose an index of crypto assets in reais, something that does not exist today.
The B3 representative also said that it is exploring ways to provide data inputs for the country’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC.
B3 and cryptocurrencies
In addition to BTC and ETH futures, B3 also intends to offer services to national cryptocurrency exchanges and to be a kind of “centralizer” of custody and settlement operations, according to Jochen Mielke from Lima:
“We have about 30 domestic cryptocurrency exchanges, in addition to international ones operating here. We could offer a service to facilitate and standardize their operations. I think it has something to explore in providing custody services and in the settlement process.”
Mielke also stated that the cryptocurrency market is very similar to the regulated stock market as it involves issuance, trading, settlement, and custody. Therefore, he claimed that B3 could help solve common problems among exchanges.
“We are identifying pain points that we can help address to address, such as helping our customers provide the best access to their end customers,” he said.
Besides, B3 plans to launch other cryptocurrency and blockchain-based products in 2022. Among them, a platform for asset tokenization, cryptocurrency trading, cryptocurrency custody, among others, is being studied.
“Trading and access to liquidity centers: it is about mitigating the complexities of accessing a fragmented, global and 24×7 market; Custody of digital assets: providing reliable custody (hence the purpose of transactions on the blockchain); Facilitation of window sales: thus in this way, it wants to provide more security and efficiency in the movement and DVP of digital assets; Capital efficiency gains: thus, it wants to mitigate the pre-funded nature of operations and Crypto as a service: to facilitate the customers exploring the cryptocurrency market with low friction,” B3 noted.
By 2022, B3 representatives said they anticipate the official launch of a reinsurance platform. It will run on Corda’s R3 blockchain, and is a partnership between the exchange and IRB Brazil.
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