433 West Van Buren Street › Suite 700S › Chicago, IL 60607 › cboe.com

September 8, 2023

Christopher J. Kirkpatrick

Secretary

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Three Lafayette Centre

1155 21st Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20581

Re: Cboe Digital Exchange, LLC Rule Certification

Submission Number CDE-2023-01E

Dear Mr. Kirkpatrick:

Pursuant to Section 5c(c)(1) of the Commodity Exchange Act, as amended (“Act”), and 

Regulation 40.6(a) of the regulations promulgated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission 

(“CFTC” or “Commission”) under the Act, Cboe Digital Exchange, LLC (“CDE” or “Exchange”) 

hereby submits an incentive program for the last fully-funded Ether futures (“ETH”) expiration that 

CDE intends to list (“Program”). The Program is set forth in a segregated confidential Exhibit A

to this submission. The Program may become effective on or after September 22, 2023, on a date 

to be announced by the Exchange through the issuance of an Exchange notice.

Program Description

As stated, Exhibit A sets for the terms of the Program. Exchange Rule 517 permits the 

Exchange to establish programs that provide Participants with financial incentives for meeting 

trading volume as may be established by the Exchange; no rule change is required to establish the 

Program.

The purpose of the Program is to incentivize Participants to submit order flow in the fullyfunded ETH futures contracts currently offered by CDE and encourage participation on CDE. 

Specifically, the Exchange currently lists for trading an ETH futures contract that expires on 

September 29, 2023.1 Following the expiration of this fully-funded ETH futures contract, the 

Exchange does not intend to list any additional fully-funded ETH futures contracts; rather, the 

Exchange plans to launch new margined futures contracts and delist its fully-funded futures 

products by the end of 2023. As such, the Exchange is offering the Program to re-establish interest 

in CDE and attract participation on the Exchange generally prior to rolling out its new margined 

futures products. The Program is designed to encourage participation on the Exchange, thereby 

attracting additional interest and liquidity on the Exchange and further growing participation, 

particularly as the Exchange introduces new products. The Program will be open to all Participants 

on CDE and the incentive available to all Participants that meet the Program’s participation criteria 

in Exhibit A. 

1 The Exchange also currently offers fully-funded futures on bitcoin (“BTC”) and the 

Ether/Bitcoin pair.
2

Core Principle Compliance

CDE believes that the Program is consistent with the Designated Contract Market 

(“DCM”) Core Principles under Section 5 of the Act. In particular, CDE believes that the Program 

is consistent with DCM Core Principles 2 (Compliance with Rules), 4 (Prevention of Market 

Disruption), 9 (Execution of Transactions), and 12 (Protection of Markets and Market Participants). 

Specifically, Participants that participate in the Program are obligated by CDE Rule 311

(Application of Rules and Jurisdiction) to comply with Exchange Rules. Exchange Rules include 

prohibitions against fraudulent, non-competitive, unfair, and abusive trading practices, and the 

Exchange monitors trading in ETH futures for violative activity such as wash trading, manipulative 

trading, and market abuse. The Program does not impact order execution priority or otherwise give 

any Participant an execution advantage. ETH futures are listed for trading in the open and 

competitive market, and the incentive under the Program will not adversely impact price discovery 

in the centralized market. Rather, the Exchange believes that the Program will have a positive 

impact on the price discovery process by promoting increased trading volume and liquidity in a 

product traded on CDE’s centralized market, promoting participation and quality markets on the 

Exchange, particularly as the Exchange introduces additional products. Accordingly, CDE believes 

that the impact of the Program will be beneficial to the public and market participants.

Public Information

We have concurrently posted a notice and copy of this submission on the Exchange’s 

website at https://www.cboedigital.com/regulation/exchange-notices/ under “CFTC Submissions.”

Opposing Views

We are not aware of any opposing views to this self-certification.

Certification

Cboe Digital Exchange, LLC hereby certifies to the Commodity Futures Trading 

Commission, pursuant to the procedures set forth in Commission regulation §40.6, that this 

submission complies with the Commodity Exchange Act, as amended, and the regulations 

promulgated thereunder.

If you have any questions regarding this submission, please contact the undersigned at the 

information below.

Sincerely, 

/s/ Rebecca Tenuta

Rebecca Tenuta

Senior Counsel 

rtenuta@cboe.com

(773) 485-7926