Bitcoin futures are now available on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
Trading of bitcoin futures on the CME officially started on Sunday evening. All of the contract that are trading on the platform are for five bitcoins. The bitcoin futures on the CME track bitcoin prices from the Gemini private exchange.
The current bitcoin futures on the website that expire in January are up following the launch. The price for the contracts started at $19,500 and were up $60 as of Monday morning. Bitcoin futures rising ins’t much of a surprise as the cryptocurrency has seen massive increases in value this year, reports Chicago Tribune.
The launch of bitcoin futures may mean that the virtual currency can continue to push forward as a legitimate commodity. This may result in the launch of bitcoin ETFs, as well as ETFs for other digital currencies.
With the massive gains that bitcoin has been seeing in 2017, there are of course warnings about the virtual currency. This includes a couple of warnings from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). One of the warnings from the organization has to do with the dangers of Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) scams.
The SEC has also been warnings investors about other risks connected to bitcoin. For example, it notes that there isn’t regulation around the currency, insurance or many other protections that investors are use to dealing with.
There is also fear from some that the bitcoin bubble will pop and cause major damage to the economy when it does. This could possibly even result in a recession.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
