[2019-06-17]Bloomberg:UK Interdealer Broker TP ICAP to Sell CME’s Bitcoin Future

[Vladdirescu87]

United Kingdom-based interdealer broker TP ICAP will sell bitcoin (BTC) financial derivatives, Bloomberg reports on June 17.

Per the report, the ICAP unit of the firm now allows its customers to buy or sell the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) bitcoin futures. In June, the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s bitcoin futures will expire with no current plans for renewal, leaving the CME as the sole offerer of BTC futures.

TP ICAP also reportedly expects to add non-deliverable forwards tied to the largest cryptocurrency, and then plans to open desks in Asia and the United States. Bloomberg claims that the company took the decision due to a decrease of its core business model:

“Interdealer brokers have traditionally relied on handling trades for banks, but their volumes shrunk in the aftermath of the financial crisis. A profit warning last year wiped 36% from TP ICAP’s market value in a day. It’s regained about 10% since then to 1.6 billion pounds ($2 billion).”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bloomberg-uk-interdealer-broker-tp-icap-to-sell-cmes-bitcoin-futures

[buwaytress]

Sometimes you just got to sit back and smile at the little ironies. Using an intermediary to buy or sell from another intermediary an asset that was designed to not need intermediaries... without actually needing that asset at all, but actually settling legal contracts representing the asset.

Imagine the bigger irony if TPICAP actually also accepted Bitcoin as payment =D

[1Referee]

Using an intermediary to buy or sell from another intermediary an asset that was designed to not need intermediaries... without actually needing that asset at all, but actually settling legal contracts representing the asset.

Making gambling easier, that's what they're good at.

It's even worse with forex markets where broker A uses broker B, and broker B uses broker C to purchase contract rights from another broker. 

In this case I would consider this bad news because buying fake Bitcoins is now made available to people outside the US as well. It was only a matter of time before this would happen, but that doesn't make it less bad. At least the CBOE has withdrawn itself from offering these casino type of products.

[5ensei]

Bloomberg claims that the company took the decision due to a decrease of its core business model:

Exactly, the regular financial markets are not making enough money now. What you they need is to get into crypto which is where the big bucks are. When BAKKT is ready they can all jump on the bandwagon

[BitHodler]

It's so unfortunate that even more entities will be able to short without actually owning the asset. Good thing is that Bitcoin is so scarce that at this stage it doesn't matter yet, but eventually it will.

Gold has been suffering from these cash settled products for years now. The ratios between spot and paper gold trading are so far apart that it has become a toy for speculators.

It would be a healthy development if these cash settled products would have an actual coin backed product on the other side, but I'm not seeing it happen with how far Bakkt and ETFs are.