The FTX cryptocurrency exchange is “working on” a pre-listing futures market for Coinbase after the US exchange announced its S-1 filing on Thursday.
In a direct message with CoinDesk, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said his team has plans to propel Coinbase’s future once it gains clarity from regulators, which it is not certain.
FTX is currently in talks with financial firm CM-Equity of Munich to gain regulatory clarity from authorities outside the US on whether the market could launch or not. FTX first partnered with CM-Equity for compliance reasons at the launch of its stock markets and symbolic futures in October.
Bankman-Fried’s plans for the future of Coinbase will probably not surprise FTX users given the exchange’s large portfolio of new and quickly launched markets, including presidential election prediction markets and bitcoin hashrate futures.
FTX also launched a pre-IPO market for Airbnb the day before the December 10 stock market’s first trading appearance of the vacation property market.
Like its other markets, however, FTX would prohibit U.S. traders from accessing Coinbase’s future, if launched, though the exchange’s first trade in San Francisco is expected on a stock market in America .
Without regulatory clarity, when the future of Coinbase would launch is a wide open question.
Bankman-Fried said its team will probably launch the market as soon as they receive positive legal clarity. But that could be “very soon” or “it could never happen.”