The financial futures market, Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), has launched its bitcoin futures trading, joining the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) which began accepting the cryptocurrency last week. The CME announced its intentions to launch bitcoin futures trading at the start of the month when it completed a self-certification with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
At the time of CME’s announcement, CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo said:
“Bitcoin, a virtual currency, is a commodity unlike any the Commission has dealt with in the past. As a result we have had extensive discussions with the exchanges regarding the proposed contracts, and CME, CFE and Cantor have agreed to significant enhancements to protect customers and maintain orderly markets.”
The launch comes just a day after bitcoin briefly hit $20,000 before retreating back to $19,000. It’s expected that the launch of service will help the price of the cryptocurrency increase from where it is now because the prior announcement of futures trading already massively spurred on the price increase. At the start of the month when the futures trading was announced, bitcoin had just passed $10,000 and has since nearly doubled.
Futures are financial contracts which obligate the buyer to purchase an asset or the seller to sell an asset, such as bitcoin, at a predetermined future date and price.
Source: BBC News