Cboe Global Markets and S&P Dow Jones Indices have extended their exclusive S&P 500 options licensing agreement through 2051, while identifying tokenized options as a product they may explore together.
Summary
- The 25-year extension preserves Cboe’s exclusive rights to offer S&P 500 Index options.
- Cboe reported 970.6 million SPX options contracts traded in 2025, up 25% from 2024.
- The companies identified tokenized options as a possible collaboration but announced no product or launch date.
- Revised royalty terms begin in 2027, with a minimal effect on net revenue growth expected by Cboe.
Cboe and S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the extension on Sep. 29, securing the exchange operator’s rights to offer options tied to the S&P 500 Index, known as SPX options. The companies also named tokenized options contracts as an area for possible joint work, without announcing a filing, trading venue, settlement design, or timetable.
For traders using SPX options to take positions on the U.S. stock market or manage risk, the agreement keeps the index license with Cboe for another 25 years. For Cboe shareholders, it extends a commercial arrangement tied to one of the company’s most active products.
Cboe keeps its SPX options rights through 2051
Cboe’s partnership with S&P Dow Jones Indices dates to 1983, when SPX options began trading. Under the extended agreement, Cboe retains the exclusive license to offer options based on the S&P 500 Index through 2051.
The renewal follows a record year for the product. According to Cboe, SPX options volume rose 25% in 2025 to 970.6 million contracts. Average daily volume reached 3.9 million contracts, its fourth consecutive annual record.
Cboe Chief Executive Craig Donohue said the agreement provides “certainty and continuity” for the company’s SPX and VIX franchises. He also pointed to the opportunity to develop products using emerging technology, although the announcement did not set out a commercial plan for tokenized options.
Financial terms will change after the current year. Cboe said royalty terms remain the same during 2026, while revised terms take effect in 2027. The company expects the reset to have only a minimal effect on its net revenue growth. Cboe shares rose 6.6% in premarket trading after the announcement, according to market reporting.
The extension replaces a much shorter remaining horizon for the license. In its 2025 annual filing, Cboe said its existing arrangement ran through 2033, with exclusive S&P 500 Index options rights through 2032. The new agreement moves those rights out to 2051.
Tokenized options remain a possible product
Alongside the license renewal, Cboe and S&P Dow Jones Indices said they could explore tokenized options contracts. Neither company described how such a contract would trade or settle, whether a blockchain would record ownership or transactions, or when a proposal might reach regulators.
A tokenized contract therefore remains separate from the SPX options available today. The announcement establishes room for the companies to work on the idea; it does not make a tokenized SPX option available to investors.
Cboe has already added another type of S&P 500-linked contract to its U.S. options business. In June, as crypto.news previously reported, the company launched binary options tied to the Mini-S&P 500 Index through Cboe Predicts. The contracts let traders take a yes-or-no position on where the index will finish and trade as security options under the existing framework for U.S.-listed options. Cboe made no such product or regulatory announcement for tokenized SPX contracts.
Other U.S. exchanges are building tokenized securities systems
In August, New York Stock Exchange parent Intercontinental Exchange agreed to invest in tZERO and license its blockchain patents. The companies are developing infrastructure for an NYSE-affiliated tokenized securities platform, including digital transfer-agent and broker-dealer systems. As reported in September, the planned platform still requires regulatory approvals before it can offer round-the-clock trading and blockchain settlement.
The ICE project concerns tokenized securities, while Cboe’s newly identified area of interest concerns options contracts. The distinction matters for U.S. investors because the companies have described different products and have reached different stages: ICE and tZERO have announced infrastructure agreements, whereas Cboe and S&P Dow Jones Indices have disclosed only a possible area of collaboration.
Cboe’s existing S&P 500 options also give it a different starting point. The company already operates a large market for contracts tied to the benchmark and has secured the index license for another 25 years. Its announcement did not say whether any future tokenized contract would use existing SPX trading arrangements or require a separate market structure.
SEC proposal addresses securities records
U.S. regulators are examining blockchain use in securities markets, though the work cited so far does not authorize a tokenized Cboe options contract. On Sep. 1, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed updating its rules for transfer agents, which maintain official securities ownership records and process ownership changes.
The proposed transfer-agent overhaul covers digital records, cybersecurity, business continuity, outside technology providers and the protection of securities and customer funds. The proposal has not become a final rule. Its focus on ownership records also differs from the questions a tokenized options product could raise about contract trading and settlement.
Separately, the SEC granted five years of conditional relief for qualifying venues to trade tokenized U.S. stocks through permissioned systems. As covered on Sep. 17, participating venues must meet conditions involving shareholder rights, trading limits, public smart contracts, and coordinated trading halts. The relief applies to eligible tokenized stocks, not to the tokenized options Cboe and S&P Dow Jones Indices said they may explore.
