The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has paused Nasdaq PHLX’s approved launch of Bitcoin index options and opened a full Commission review after CME Group challenged the product’s regulatory treatment. Written statements supporting or opposing the earlier approval are due by Aug. 24, 2026.

The dispute centers on which federal regulator should oversee the proposed contracts. CME says the options are commodity swaps tied directly to Bitcoin’s value and therefore fall under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s exclusive jurisdiction, while Nasdaq has argued the SEC and CFTC would share authority.

Approval remains on hold

The SEC’s order was issued on July 29, and its publication in the Federal Register on Aug. 3 started the public comment clock. The agency said submissions backing or opposing the prior approval must be received by Aug. 24.

For now, the SEC has not resolved the underlying jurisdictional question. Instead, it granted CME’s petition for Commission-level review and left in place a stay of the agency’s May 22 approval until another order is issued.

What Nasdaq wants to list

Nasdaq PHLX is seeking to launch cash-settled, European-style QBTC options. The contracts would track the CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index divided by 100, and final settlement would be based on a variant of the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate.

According to the proposal, the options would carry a position limit of 24,000 contracts. The product is designed as an index option rather than an option on an exchange-traded fund share, which is a key reason the regulatory debate has intensified.

Why CME objected

CME’s challenge rests on the view that Bitcoin is a non-security commodity under federal derivatives regulation. From that premise, it argues that an option whose value is based directly on Bitcoin should be treated as a commodity option swap.

If that interpretation prevails, CME says the contracts would fall within the CFTC’s exclusive federal jurisdiction rather than the SEC’s. The SEC’s latest order does not endorse that claim, but it does acknowledge the issue is significant enough to warrant further review by the full Commission.

Jurisdiction remains unsettled

Nasdaq has taken a different position, arguing that the proposed product would involve joint SEC and CFTC jurisdiction. Even so, the source article notes that SEC approval by itself would not be enough to begin trading.

Before the contracts could launch, any required exemptions from the CFTC and the Options Clearing Corporation would still need to be in place. That means the current SEC review is only one part of a broader regulatory path for the proposed Bitcoin-linked options.

Next step in the process

The immediate milestone is the Aug. 24 deadline for written statements on whether the SEC should uphold or overturn the earlier approval. Until the Commission issues a new order, the May 22 approval remains stayed and Nasdaq PHLX cannot move ahead with the listing under that decision.

The next confirmed step, based on the SEC order, is the Commission’s review of the record after the comment period closes. Only then will it decide whether the product can proceed under the existing approval framework or whether CME’s jurisdictional objection changes the outcome.

Source: crypto.news