B3, Brazil’s main exchange, registered the first guaranteed OTC flexible option tied to Hashdex’s crypto-index ETF HASH11 this week. The exchange’s clearinghouse acted as central counterparty in a trade between Inter and XP, marking the first time a derivative with a crypto ETF as underlying has been cleared with a guarantee in a regulated venue. The move plugs crypto-linked exposure directly into Brazil’s established derivatives framework.
How the option works
The instrument is an OTC flexible option — meaning parties can customise maturity, strike price, and barriers. Unlike tokenized collateral proposals (like BlackRock’s pitch to the CFTC last year for money market funds as collateral), this option uses the HASH11 ETF shares as the underlying asset for a derivatives contract. The clearinghouse guarantee removes counterparty risk, a feature that standard OTC crypto derivatives typically lack.
B3’s crypto track record
B3 listed HASH11 in April 2021, making it Brazil’s first crypto-index ETF. Hashdex had already launched the world’s first crypto ETF on the Bermuda Stock Exchange earlier that year. B3 also approved Ethereum ETFs years before U.S. spot products. Last year, Bitcoin futures on B3 hit $400 billion in notional volume and 41 million contracts in their first 12 months — with 53% of participants coming from outside Brazil. The exchange has a habit of pushing crypto infrastructure forward faster than many of its global peers.
Why the clearinghouse guarantee matters
Standard OTC crypto options are typically bilateral, with each side bearing the other’s credit risk. By having B3’s clearinghouse stand in the middle, both Inter and XP get a central counterparty guarantee — the same protection that exists in Brazil’s traditional derivatives markets. That matters for institutional adoption. It also matters for collateral efficiency: B3 recently expanded eligible collateral to include real estate investment funds and Brazilian ETF quotas, bringing its total collateral pool to roughly $146 billion. The HASH11 option adds crypto ETF exposure to that mix, though as a derivative rather than pledged collateral.
A broader trend
The trade follows a pattern. Standard Chartered this year launched a framework that lets OKX institutional clients post BlackRock’s tokenized Treasury fund BUIDL as collateral while keeping custody. BlackRock itself submitted a 2025 CFTC response pushing for tokenized money market funds and stablecoins to be allowed as collateral in cleared and uncleared derivatives markets. B3’s approach is different — it uses a regulated ETF as the underlying for a derivative — but the direction is the same: connecting crypto assets to the plumbing of traditional finance.
What’s next
B3 has not said whether it will expand the product to other ETFs or add listed versions of the same structure. The Bitcoin futures regime, which opened in April 2024, took about a year to reach $400 billion in volume. If the OTC flexible option follows a similar adoption curve, it could become a template for how other exchanges integrate crypto ETFs into derivatives clearing.
