Digital currency investors and miners will be able to hedge thevolatile assets under U.S. regulatory oversight for the first timein just a couple of months.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission granted LedgerX, acryptocurrency trading platform operator, registration as aclearing house for derivatives contracts settling in digitalcurrencies, according to a statement by the regulators Monday.With the approval, LedgerX is set to become the first federallyregulated digital currency options exchange and clearinghouse inthe U.S. as interest and volatility in the method of exchangesurges.

“It's an important milestone for the digital currency marketbroadly,” said Paul Chou, a former Goldman Sachs trader, who isLedgerX's chief executive. “This will pave the way for othersglobally to look at the space and the appropriate way to regulate anew market like this.”

The New York-based company plans to offer one- to six-monthbitcoin-to-dollars options contracts in late September to earlyOctober, Chou said in a telephone interview. Contracts for otherdigital currencies including for Ethereum's ether are expected tofollow, as well as longer-term protection.

The CFTC had granted LedgerX authorization to trade digitalcurrencies earlier this month. The company, which is backed byAlphabet Inc.'s venture-capital arm, aims to provide institutionalinvestors the ability to hedge against price swings in digitalcurrencies in the same way they protect against volatility in otherassets.

Other platforms that offer options trading are BitcoinMercantile Exchange, owned by Seychelles-incorporated HDR GlobalTrading Ltd., and Deribit of Amsterdam. In 2015, the CFTC orderedbitcoin options trading platform Derivabit, which was based inCalifornia, to cease operations as it hadn't followed regulatoryprocedures.

This is another step in the crypto-currency community's effortsfor the sector to mature and draw in a broader user and investorbase. Bitcoin had been under pressure as feuding factions disagreedon how to help the digital asset scale, until prices rebounded lastweek on signs an agreement is near.

Chou said the ability to hedge digital assets will attractinstitutional investors who had been on the sidelines.

“We're getting people that want to hedge and people that wantexposure to a new asset class that they can add to their portfolioand help diversify, and get potential upside of potential digitalcurrency,” he said. “We want to keep it to a certain size in thebeginning before we scale up over the next couple of months.”

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