In a significant development for digital asset markets, Chicago-based derivatives exchange and clearing house Bitnomial has launched the first regulated Tezos (XTZ) futures contracts in the United States. This marks the first time the XTZ token has a futures market on a U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-regulated exchange.
The futures contracts are now live and allow both institutional and retail traders to gain exposure to XTZ price movements. Traders can use either cryptocurrency or U.S. dollars as margin. Futures contracts enable participants to hedge risk or gain price exposure by agreeing to buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price on a future date, without holding the underlying asset.
Bitnomial President Michael Dunn highlighted the regulatory significance, stating, "CFTC-regulated futures market with six months of trading history checks a key box under the SEC's generic listing standards for spot ETFs." This positions regulated futures as a potential prerequisite for broader institutional products like spot exchange-traded funds.
Tezos co-founder Arthur Breitman welcomed the move, saying, "U.S. regulated futures contracts form the backbone of commodity markets. The introduction of these regulations for Tezos (XTZ) reflects Tezos’s growing maturity and supports broader institutional participation, enabling mature price discovery and risk transfer."
Bitnomial has established itself as a pioneer in launching regulated crypto derivatives beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum in the U.S. The exchange previously listed U.S.-regulated futures for assets including XRP, Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), and Aptos (APT). Its path to listing altcoin futures has involved regulatory challenges; in 2024, the SEC objected to Bitnomial's self-certification of XRP futures, leading to a lawsuit that was later dropped. The exchange launched XRP futures in March 2025 following an evolving regulatory approach.
The Tezos project, first proposed in 2014, conducted one of history's largest initial coin offerings (ICOs) in 2017, raising approximately $232 million (about 66,000 BTC and 361,000 ETH). Its mainnet launched in June 2018. Tezos was an early layer-1 network to combine proof-of-stake consensus with formal on-chain governance, allowing upgrades without hard forks. During the 2021-2022 NFT boom, it gained traction as a lower-cost, energy-efficient alternative to Ethereum, attracting partners like Ubisoft, Red Bull Racing, and McLaren Racing.
On January 25, 2026, Tezos implemented its 20th on-chain upgrade, the Tallinn protocol, which reduced base-layer block times to six seconds. The native XTZ token, which reached an all-time high of $9.12 in October 2021, was trading around $0.46 at the time of the announcement.
