The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved a rule change permitting Cboe, one of the largest operators of U.S. options exchanges, to list binary options linked to key performance indicators (KPIs) reported by publicly traded companies, with Coinbase, Robinhood, and Marathon Digital — a crypto exchange, a retail brokerage, and a Bitcoin miner, respectively — among the first issuers whose metrics will underlie the new contracts. The decision marks the first time investors will be able to take yes-or-no positions on the operational metrics of individual companies through a standardized, exchange-traded options product.

The contracts function as cash-settled, European-style binary options, meaning they settle in cash rather than through delivery of an underlying asset and can be exercised only at expiration. Rather than taking a directional position on the underlying stock or asset, traders speculate on whether a given KPI will meet a predefined threshold by expiration. The underlying variables include Coinbase's trading volume, Marathon's Bitcoin production figures, and Robinhood's customer and revenue metrics.

The products will trade on a securities exchange as NMS (National Market System) securities, placing them under the full framework of existing investor protections — including exchange rules on customer accounts, margin requirements, trading halts, auction mechanisms, and market-maker obligations — and they will operate in a substantially similar manner to the standardized options already available to investors. Robinhood is expected to become the first retail broker to offer the new contracts to its user base.

NEW: The SEC has approved @Cboe to list binary options tied to KPIs (key performance indicators) reported by public companies, including @coinbase, @RobinhoodApp and @MARA. The contracts let traders take yes/no positions on metrics like Coinbase trading volume, Marathon's BTC… pic.twitter.com/7dOQVbICtV

— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) October 14, 2026

A New Chapter in SEC–CFTC Coordination

For the crypto sector, the approval creates a novel mechanism for expressing views on the performance of crypto-linked companies without directly betting on Bitcoin's price. Investors can now isolate and trade specific operational drivers — exchange volumes, mining output, and user growth — that were previously accessible only through equity analysis or opaque prediction markets. This granular exposure may appeal to retail participants and institutional traders alike, particularly those seeking hedging instruments tied to the crypto industry's operational health rather than token spot prices.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins characterized the decision as reflecting what he described in his statement as a new spirit of harmonization, innovation, and investor choice, explicitly framing it as an effort to remove unnecessary obstacles to the lawful introduction of novel financial instruments.

Notably, the approval order is deliberately narrow in scope: it addresses only these specific securities-options structures and does not foreclose Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) jurisdiction over similarly derived KPI contracts structured differently. Atkins acknowledged that decades of jurisdictional friction between the two agencies have stifled innovation and left unrealized financial products in their wake, suggesting the order may serve as a template for cross-agency coordination on hybrid derivatives.

Whether the CFTC follows with a complementary framework for KPI-based contracts under its own authority will determine how comprehensive this new asset class ultimately becomes.