Chicago-based crypto commutation ErisX has notified its members and participants that it will start trading futures digital currency products in a strangely low-central proclamation.

On Dec. xvi, ErisX reached out to its members, informing them of its intent to offset trading crypto futures tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 17. The notice is strange, because that it appeared without the fanfare one would expect of the launch of such a major product, leaving doubt only magnified past the history of the exchange, as well as rival LedgerX.

In July, the TD Ameritrade-backed crypto commutation procured a derivatives clearing organization (DCO) license from the Us Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Laurian Cristea, Full general Counsel at ErisX, remarked at the time that when crypto futures become bachelor, the exchange will offer a unmarried platform that accommodates both spot and futures trading. ErisX CEO Thomas Chippas added:

"ErisX is unique in that for our digital asset market, we have divided the trading and settlement functions using traditional DCM (exchange) and DCO (clearing) models [...] This reflects the structure that institutional investors expect from other asset classes and will help bulldoze these markets toward greater relevance and accessibility."

Competitor LedgerX also received license

Only a calendar week before ErisX received its license, competitor LedgerX procured its own DCM license when the CFTC approved the application of LedgerX LLC for designation equally a contract market place.

However, in a controversy between LedgerX and the CFTC it came out that the Commission had non yet approved LedgerX's physically-settled bitcoin futures production. LedgerX had said on July 31 that its physical futures offering went live on its Omni trading platform, but the CFTC suggested that this could non take occurred.

In September, the controversy connected when LedgerX's claimed that the agency'due south former chairman, Christopher Giancarlo, obstructed the approval of its amended DCO registration considering of personal bias against LedgerX CEO Paul Chou.