The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a Cboe rule change enabling standardized binary options tied to key performance indicators reported by public companies, including crypto-focused firms Coinbase, Robinhood, and MARA Holdings. The Commission voted on October 13, and Chairman Paul Atkins described the decision as a step toward harmonization, innovation and investor choice.
The new contracts are cash-settled and European-style, meaning they can be exercised only at expiration. Winning positions pay a fixed $1, while losing contracts expire worthless. Unlike ordinary stock options, they do not depend on share prices; they turn on whether a reported business metric meets a specific condition. For Coinbase, eligible indicators include total trading volume, transaction revenue, total revenue, subscription and services revenue, and diluted net income per share. Coinbase reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $1.22 billion, down 18.5% year over year, and a net loss of $359.5 million. Robinhood measures include net revenue, funded customers, and Gold subscribers.
For MARA Holdings, contracts may reference Bitcoin production, purchases, total holdings, blocks won, and energized hashrate. MARA produced 2,422 BTC, reported $174.9 million in revenue and a $611.3 million net loss, and held 35,577 BTC at the end of June. Its energized hashrate was 70.3 EH/s, and it sold 2,213 BTC. The approval is notable for miners because those operating metrics can move separately from Bitcoin’s market price.
Cboe originally announced the planned KPI rollout in late September, covering company-specific metrics for 23 public companies and targeting an October launch. The final contract lineup and launch date remain unconfirmed, with no published contract size, position limits, open interest, spreads, or liquidity details. MARA Holdings stock closed at $8.23 on October 14, down 9.66% for the session.
The SEC order applies only to these standardized options on a securities exchange and does not prevent the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from overseeing differently structured products tied to commodities law. The contracts are classified as National Market System securities and fall under standardized-options rules covering margin, trading halts, and market-maker obligations.
