The price of bitcoins has climbed to 24 hours following the announcement of the auto -certification of US derivatives CME futures in mid-December.
As CCN reported, CME announced Friday that, pending final regulatory approval, the stock market will launch its highly anticipated bitcoin futures product on Monday, December 18. Although CME signaled its intention to launch these products before the end of the year, many people were skeptical that the US Commodity Futures Trade Commission (CFTC) is extending its application within this timeframe.
The price of bitcoin jumped in response to news, peaking at $ 10,760 a day on Bitfinex bitcoin trading. This represents a recovery of nearly $ 2,000 from yesterday's low, which drove the price of bitcoin down to $ 8,801. At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price was trading at $ 10,452 on Bitfinex, which represents a 24-hour increase over 24 hours.
Source: BitcoinWisdom
The advent of bitcoin futures and other exchange-traded derivatives should greatly accelerate the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency as a financial instrument. The CEO of Pantera Capital, Dan Morehead, went so far as to say that he expects Bitcoin to become soon a "rational and expected" component of a diversified financial portfolio.
Some institutional investors – including Thomas Peterffy of Interactive Brokers – have criticized Bitcoin derivatives and fear that they will destabilize markets. However, Terry Duffy, chief executive of CME, argued that these fears are exaggerated, noting that the exchange has rules in place to prevent this from happening.
Despite the reservations of some investors, US stock markets have been quick to add bitcoin futures to their product lines. Earlier this week, a Wall Street Journal report indicated that Nasdaq Inc. was planning to launch a bitcoin contract on its futures exchange in the first half of 2018. In a separate announcement Friday, the CBOE, based in Chicago, has revealed certification with the CFTC as a precursor to launch its own bitcoin futures product under the XBT symbol. However, neither the Nasdaq nor the CBOE futures have an official launch date.
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