The CBOE, CME and Nadsaq are all preparing bitcoin futures trading. CBOE will be the first, beginning bitcoin futures trading on December 10. Futures trading in the cryptocurrency may make a bitcoin ETF a possibility.
The race to get bitcoin futures is now on. The CBOE announced Monday it would begin trading bitcoin futures on Sunday evening at the start of global trading hours. The first full day of trading would be on Monday, Dec. 11. That would beat the CME, which has announced it, too, will begin trading bitcoin futures on Dec. 18, a week later, and the Nasdaq, which is also planning to introduce futures trading in the first half of 2018.
The argument seems to be a simple one. The presence of a futures market will demonstrate that the cryptocurrency is sufficiently "regulated" to allow ETFs to start. The argument may be helped by two features that will be a part of the bitcoin futures: price limits and margin rates.
The CBOE and CME will have margin rates of 30 percent and 35 percent, respectively. In addition to being able to short bitcoin, there's considerable speculation about whether futures will lower or increase the volatility level of bitcoin. The CME, for example, says it will be using price limits that kick in during gains or losses of 7 percent, 13 percent and 20 percent that would slow and in some cases halt trading. In particular, prices will not be allowed to move up or down more than 20 percent from the prior day's close. If that limit is hit, trading can only continue at or within the +/- 20 percent limit for the remainder of the trading session. More here...
The race is on for the introduction of Futures Contracts to the market and it seems that the less-publicized CBOE is moving ahead to the much-touted CME offering. Well, right now, there is an excitement that anybody in the Bitcoin community can easily feel in the advent of the futures for Bitcoin as part of its legitimization movement and in my estimate this is just the start as we have just barely scratched the surface. some are guessing that the futures can control the growth of Bitcoin but I believe that this is something that can only be confirmed once the data is already published in the open. What is sure is that the future for Bitcoin is getting brighter with these finance institutions now joining the Bitcoin party!
