The Brazil-based Stock Exchange B3 reportedly disclosed details of its first crypto-focused official solution, which commenced to be released within the next six months, Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading.

Specifically, the development was reportedly revealed by the group’s chief financial officer, André Milanez, with little information on the way the service will operate as well as B3’s move to collaboratively or independently introduce Bitcoin futures trading. 

Nonetheless, the timeline for launching this product was stated to be relatively short. 

At the moment, there is a total of 11 ETFs available for trading for institutional and retail investors in the Brazilian market via B3, with exposure to cryptocurrencies, including CRPT11 from Empiricus with Vitreo; the NFTS11 of Investor; QBTC11, QETH11, and QDFI11 all from QR Assets and META11, HASH11, BITH11, ETHE11, DEFI11, WEB311 all from Hashdex. 

Furthermore, in the local scene in Brazil, over-investment funds reportedly received the green light from the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM), which provides a wide variety of kinds of exposure to the crypto-assets market.

In January Jochen Mielke de Lima, director of information technology at B3 had already claimed that the Brazilian stock exchange sought to roll out a few offerings with exposure to cryptocurrencies this year, including Bitcoin futures and Ethereum (ETH) futures. 

At the time, the executive reportedly emphasized that the Brazilian stock exchange had been keeping a close tab on the cryptocurrency market from a technological perspective since 2016.

Per the statement, the only concern B3 is required to tackle is whether the negotiations would be conducted against the U.S. dollar or against the Brazilian real.

Futures contracts require a reference index, hence should the team selects Brazil’s native currency, it will be mandatory to put together a crypto-assets index in reais – something that is not available at the moment.