XRP Makes U.S. Regulatory History with Launch on CFTC-Regulated Spot Exchange

Bitnomial, a Chicago-based derivatives exchange company, has launched what it claims is the first U.S. spot cryptocurrency exchange regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The exchange went live the week of December 8, 2025, and listed XRP as a core asset from day one.

The platform, operating under Bitnomial's Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO), integrates spot trading with futures, perpetual swaps, and options. A key feature is the ability for traders to use XRP and Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin as margin collateral, treating them similarly to U.S. Treasuries within a supervised clearing and risk-management framework. This structure is designed to bring institutional-grade market infrastructure to crypto trading.

Luke Hoersten, Founder and CEO of Bitnomial, stated the launch brings leveraged spot crypto trading "back to the U.S. with CFTC oversight." He emphasized that the convergence of spot and derivatives on a single exchange with unified portfolio margining transforms capital efficiency by allowing traders to offset risk across all product types on one platform, eliminating redundant margin requirements.

The launch is seen as a significant regulatory milestone, moving a portion of U.S. crypto trading from state-level money transmitter oversight or offshore platforms into a federally regulated derivatives framework. CFTC Acting Chair Caroline Pham's pro-innovation stance was credited with enabling this pathway by recognizing that retail commodity transactions could be offered on a DCM and cleared by a DCO.

Concurrently, Ripple's Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, has increased transparency around the XRP Ledger (XRPL) by making performance data for his XRPL Hub public. He shared connection details, software version (2.6.2), latency trends, and traffic metrics, providing a stable public node for the network. This disclosure occurs amid ongoing community debates about XRPL's programmability and feature development.

As of the report, XRP was trading near $2.09, below its 50-week exponential moving average of around $2.30.