B3, a prominent exchange in Brazil, opened trading on futures contracts for Ethereum and Solana today. This represents the first step in a plan to offer several altcoin futures contracts.
Additionally, B3 also tweaked its pre-existing Bitcoin futures contracts, making them cheaper to appeal to domestic retail investors. These altcoin offerings, on the other hand, cater to an international clientele.
Brazil’s New Altcoin Futures Contracts
B3 made headlines two months ago when it became the world’s first exchange to offer an XRP ETF. This development became possible thanks to regulatory developments in Brazil, a nation that has aimed to become a crypto hub.
Today, B3 expanded Brazil’s presence in the industry with its new futures contracts based on Solana and Ethereum:
“B3 is offering new cryptocurrency derivatives instruments to meet the growing demand for products linked to cryptoassets, bringing more innovation and sophistication to our products, in addition to offering more alternatives to investors familiar with blockchain technology”, Marcos Skistymas, B3’s Director of Products, said in a press release.
To be clear, Brazil is far from the first country to offer futures contracts based on these altcoins. In the United States, a Solana futures ETF began trading on the CME three months ago.
Still, B3’s entry into this market is valuable for several reasons. For one thing, the firm plans to offer similar contracts for other popular tokens in the near future, if this proves successful.
The Ethereum and Solana futures contracts will be based on the price of underlying assets listed on the Nasdaq. Each ETH contract will be worth 0.25% of the token, while each Solana future will represent five SOL.
Both will be priced in US dollars to attract international investors, and settlements will occur on the last Friday of each month.
B3 also announced that it’ll be readjusting its preexisting Bitcoin futures contract so that each share will be worth 0.01 BTC instead of 0.1.
By making Bitcoin futures ten times cheaper, the exchange hopes to attract more retail investors within Brazil. This contrasts with the internationally focused strategy of its new altcoin products.
Of course, Brazil’s demographic of small crypto investors just suffered a higher tax rate, potentially impacting B3’s futures contracts.
Even if these products don’t directly constitute crypto investment, the new taxes also apply to indirect financial entanglements. Hopefully, this won’t present a major obstacle in the future.
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