As previously reported by The Blue Swan Daily, at the beginning of 2017, the highly volatile Bitcoin was valued at just below USD1,000. Over the past week it has skyrocketed well into the teens at a high of over USD19,000, before dropping to around USD16,000.
The impressive growth has now been given further opportunity to continue thanks to the prospect of an exchange-listed and regulated product and the ability to bet on its price swings without having to sign up for a digital wallet.
Cboe's bitcoin futures is trading on CFE under the ticker symbol 'XBT.' The futures are cash-settled contracts based on the auction price of bitcoin in U.S. dollars on the Gemini Exchange, which is owned and operated by virtual currency entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
XBT futures are specifically designed to allow participants to implement straightforward trading strategies, through settlement to a single, tradeable auction price.
Cboe Global Markets Chairman and CEO Ed Tilly said: "Given the unprecedented interest in bitcoin, it's vital we provide clients the trading tools to help them express their views and hedge their exposure. We are committed to encouraging fairness and liquidity in the bitcoin market. To promote this, we will initially offer XBT futures trading for free."
Bitcoin prices surged back up to the USD16,900 mark as a result of CFE trading the futures on the cryptocurrency. In fact, the new futures were up 9.1% to USD16,870 almost immediately once trading began, however within minutes demand on the CBOE website crashed it under the load.
https://twitter.com/CBOE/status/940001581482815498
https://twitter.com/CBOE/status/940018928184647680
Once back up and running ended up settling at USD16,488 a day on.
Cboe XBT Bitcoin Futures Trading Data
Source: Cboe Futures Exchange