It’s another exciting day for the crypto crowd as the CME is following the Cboe into the great unknown with the launch of Bitcoin futures.
We are officially off and running:
- CME DEBUTS BITCOIN FUTURES TRADING, FRONT-MONTH CONTRACT OPENS AT $20,650
Right out of the gate, we came off the highs and have since moved below $19,000:
Here’s what’s happening with the Cboe futs:
The CME is super-excited:
CME Bitcoin futures are now live, bringing more effective #bitcoin risk management to the market. Trade #BTC today. https://t.co/3JlIlVp5Oc pic.twitter.com/NY8ccYqwW9
— CME Group (@CMEGroup) December 17, 2017
Meanwhile, Bitcoin itself dipped the minute after the launch:
As a reminder, the Cboe product met with modest success in its debut week with some 10,000 contracts trading or, around $180 million in Bitcoin.
Early on, the futures traded at a double-digit premium to spot, but by the end of the week, that arb opportunity largely disappeared:
On Sunday, ahead of the closely-watched CME launch, Bitcoin traded near $20,000 at one point, before fading – it’s still up markedly since the end of the work week:
As Bloomberg writes, “CME’s version could make a bigger splash because the company is a much bigger player in futures than Cboe, handling about 55 times more volume during the first nine months of 2017.”
“CME’s bitcoin contract may not be first, but they are a larger futures clearinghouse and we are looking forward to our clients trading their product on Sunday evening,” ED&F Man Capital Markets’ VP Brooks Dudley, told Bloomberg in an e-mail.
For those interested in the specs on the CME contract, you can check out the details along with some further color in our post here.
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