SEC Approves Binary Options Tied to KPIs at Coinbase,…

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has cleared Cboe Global Markets to list binary options tied to corporate performance metrics at 23 publicly traded companies, creating a regulated venue for trading on earnings and operating outcomes rather than share prices. The approval, dated October 13, removes the main exchange-rule obstacle Cboe and Robinhood Markets identified when they announced the KPI contracts on September 30.

The contracts settle in cash against figures disclosed in SEC filings — Forms 10-Q, 10-K and 8-K — rather than preliminary earnings releases, and a completed settlement will not be revised if a company later restates its results. Covered indicators include Coinbase Global's trading volume, MARA Holdings' bitcoin production and, for Robinhood, total net revenue, funded customer accounts, average revenue per user and Gold subscribers. Each contract pays a fixed $1 if its condition is met and expires worthless otherwise; the options are European-style and positions must be fully funded.

Robinhood is expected to be the first retail brokerage to offer the products when trading begins, initially targeted for October. A launch still depends on additional regulatory clearance: Cboe Clear U.S., the proposed clearinghouse, submitted an amended registration application on October 1, and the SEC published a notice on that application on October 6. Cboe has committed not to list the options until the applicable clearing requirements are satisfied.

Parallel markets

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said approval of Cboe's structure does not exclude CFTC jurisdiction over differently designed contracts referencing the same corporate metrics, leaving room for SEC-regulated exchanges and CFTC-supervised venues such as Kalshi to compete on comparable economic outcomes. Traditional securities-market protections — exchange surveillance, position limits, margin requirements and market-maker obligations — apply to the Cboe products.

For Robinhood, the arrangement extends an event-contract business that produced $156 million of revenue in the second quarter of 2026, more than its equities or cryptocurrency transaction revenue individually. Cboe and Robinhood have said they will waive fees on the new contracts through the end of 2026, subject to regulatory review — supportive of early adoption but limiting near-term monetization.

Because payouts are fixed, traders can lose an entire premium even when a company's fundamentals improve. Once trading starts, market depth and bid-ask spreads will determine whether the instruments are practically usable. For crypto-linked names such as Coinbase and MARA, the options provide an alternative to direct bitcoin exposure, though the results of those businesses remain closely tied to cryptocurrency prices.