Betting on KPIs: SEC Approves Corporate-Metric Binary Options as a Second Applicant Enters On-Chain Stocks

On October 13, the SEC granted accelerated approval for Cboe to list binary options tied to Coinbase trading volume and MARA Bitcoin production; the next day, Perpetuals filed to become the second tokenized-equities venue under the Innovation Exemption. With legislation stalled, regulators are redrawing market boundaries through product innovation.

SEC Approves KPI Binary Options: Betting on Corporate Operating Results

On October 13, 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted accelerated approval to a rule change by Cboe Exchange (Release No. 34-106659) allowing the listing of standardized binary options tied to key performance indicators (KPIs) disclosed by 23 public companies. Cboe filed the proposal on June 30, the Federal Register published it for public comment on July 15, and Cboe submitted a revised version (Amendment No. 1) on October 1, winning accelerated approval on October 13.

The products are European-style, cash-settled options: a call pays $1 if the reported metric meets or exceeds a preset strike level, a put pays $1 if the figure falls below the threshold, and in all other cases the contract expires worthless. Settlement relies on the figure disclosed in the company’s SEC filings (Form 8-K, 10-Q or 10-K), not its earnings press release; a later restatement does not change an already-settled payout. Each contract has a multiplier of one (compared with 100 for standard equity options), positions must be fully funded, and holdings are capped at 25,000 standard option contracts per expiration, with 100 binary KPI contracts counting as one standard contract.

In his statement the same day, Atkins stressed that the order covers only these specific contracts traded on a securities exchange, and neither addresses nor forecloses CFTC oversight of KPI products structured differently. He used “turf wars” to describe years of jurisdictional tug-of-war between the two agencies, calling the decision a reflection of “harmonization, innovation and investor choice.” For the crypto industry, the company list is the most striking part: Coinbase metrics include diluted earnings per share, total revenue, transaction revenue, total trading volume and subscription and services revenue; MARA metrics cover Bitcoin produced, Bitcoin purchased, total BTC holdings, blocks won and energized hashrate; Robinhood covers total net revenues, funded customers, ARPU and Robinhood Gold subscribers.

Crypto Exposure Without Tokens: The Industry Significance of Binary Options

The significance of these products lies not in their size but in the new regulated channel they open for crypto exposure. Investors no longer need to hold Bitcoin or tokens to take positions on metrics closely tied to the crypto market, such as MARA’s Bitcoin production or Coinbase’s trading volume. The boundary between CFTC-regulated prediction markets (such as Kalshi) and SEC-regulated securities options has, for the first time, been pushed to center stage by a concrete product: in its August 5 comment letter, Kalshi urged the SEC to hold off until the two agencies clarified where securities options end and where derivatives begin.

The launch timeline is still pending: Cboe must first complete the registration of Cboe Clear U.S. (CCUS) as a covered clearing agency, and trading dates will only be announced after both the exchange and clearinghouse filings are approved. Robinhood will be the first retail broker to offer these contracts; both Cboe and Robinhood have said they will charge no fees through the end of 2026. Cboe’s Day 1 product list, dated September 14, lists more than 100 metrics but does not yet include Coinbase’s total trading volume; the final lineup may still change.

The Second On-Chain Equities Venue: Perpetuals’ Comeback

On October 14, Perpetuals.com (PDC), a Nasdaq-listed fintech company, announced it had published a notice of intent to operate a tokenized securities venue under the SEC’s five-year Innovation Exemption, becoming the second company to seek approval to trade U.S. stocks under the framework, after OKXICE, the joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange. CEO Patrick Gruhn previously ran FTX Europe; his founding team built some of the earliest stock-linked tokens for Binance, FTX and Bittrex in 2021, products that offered only price exposure with no voting rights and were eventually delisted under regulatory pressure.

This time the rules are fundamentally different. The SEC’s Innovation Exemption requires tokens to carry the same shareholder rights as ordinary shares (dividends, voting, liquidation residual claims) and gives issuers 30 days to object to their shares being tokenized. Perpetuals’ U.S. venue will be operated by Kephas Corporation, a Delaware subsidiary, trading through permissioned automated market maker (AMM) liquidity pools, initially on Kronos X Public, an Ethereum-compatible layer-2 blockchain developed by the company, with each pool pairing a tokenized stock with a digital dollar, initially expected to be USDC. CoinDesk reported that trading could begin in mid-November at the earliest, subject to completion of market data, compliance arrangements and smart contract security reviews.

Perpetuals’ announcement also referenced a recent agreement to tokenize more than $300 million in physical commodities and said its technology powers PM MTF, an EU-licensed multilateral trading facility holding MiFID II, MiCA, DORA and EMIR authorizations. But its scale is a clear weakness: total assets of just $65.2 million as of end-April and a $17.6 million net loss last fiscal year, one year of losses equal to 27% of the balance sheet. An on-chain exchange does not create liquidity on its own; as DeFiLlama data shows, the entire RWA category holds just $4.1 billion, 0.14% of the $2.835 trillion crypto market.

White House Crypto Coordinator Departs: Legislative Vacuum and Administrative Handover

On October 14, White House Crypto Council executive director Patrick Witt confirmed his departure as his temporary detail expired; per The Block, the role was a temporary assignment from the Department of Defense. Witt is the third senior White House crypto official to leave this year: in March, crypto and AI czar David Sacks stepped down after his 130-day special government employee window ended; in July, deputy director Harry Jung departed. In his farewell statement, Witt called government service “the privilege of a lifetime” and thanked SEC Chairman Atkins and CFTC Chairman Selig by name.

His exit comes as the CLARITY Act remains stalled after failing a cloture vote 49-50 on September 15. Witt had been the core coordinator of legislative negotiations, mediating stablecoin rewards, banking competition, and ethics provisions tied to the Trump family’s crypto holdings one by one. Blockchain Association chief policy officer Lindsay Fraser said: “When the issues got hardest, he was the one who brought every side to the table and kept them there.” Solana Policy Institute president Kristin Smith added that “building consensus on crypto market structure was no small task.” The White House has not announced a replacement, leaving a vacuum in crypto legislative coordination while the SEC and CFTC accelerate under existing powers: the SEC proposed a crypto custody framework on October 1, and the CFTC opened a consultation on leveraged retail crypto commodity transactions on October 5.

Key Takeaways for Practitioners