Coinbase Launches WIF Futures Trading for Non-U.S. Users

The international exchange platform Coinbase has expanded its futures trading to include dogwifhat (WIF) for customers outside the United States.

Coinbase launches WIF futures trading for non-U.S. users. Photo: CoinMarketCap

Coinbase International Exchange (CIE) and Coinbase Advanced will initiate futures trading for dogwifhat (WIF) for users outside the U.S. territory, starting from 4:30 PM on April 25th (Vietnam time).

Following this announcement, WIF saw a surge of over 20%, rising from $2.25 USD to $2.71 USD. However, this upward momentum was not sustained and saw a significant decline amid negative developments in Bitcoin earlier today, coinciding with news of Israel launching retaliatory missile strikes against Iran.

1-hour chart of the WIF/USDT pair on Binance exchange at 10:05 AM on April 19, 2024

Currently, the meme coin with a pink-hatted dog remains the world's third-largest memecoin, with a market capitalization of nearly $2.4 billion USD, trailing only Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB).

About a week ago, Coinbase postponed its plan to launch futures contracts for the memecoin Pepe (PEPE). According to the latest announcement, 1000PEPE-PERP is expected to debut on CIE on April 18th.

Since September last year, Coinbase has been licensed to provide crypto derivatives services to customers in certain legal jurisdictions outside the U.S.

Meanwhile, the United States has shown caution in approving high-risk futures products such as the mentioned memecoins. Nevertheless, Coinbase received a nod from the National Futures Association to clear futures trading for a limited number of individual traders in the U.S. through Coinbase Advanced last year.

This move aligns with the significant growth observed in the derivatives market recently. According to CoinDesk, trading volume in this segment surged by 85% last month, reaching $6.18 trillion USD.

Trading volume for spot and futures in March 2024. Source: CCData