The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)’s first Bitcoin futures contract closed Wednesday, Jan. 17, at $10,900 after a relatively turbulent week in the crypto market had briefly brought Bitcoin’s (BTC) price below $10,000.
By Jan. 9, there were 1,907 short position contracts for Bitcoin futures on CBOE. When the futures closed on Jan. 16, BTC had gone down about 36 percent.
Reuters reported on the futures contract closing as a “win for bitcoin bears over the bulls.”
CBOE chief executive Ed Tilly told the Financial Times:
“[The] market experienced a smooth operational close and the settlement process worked as designed.”
CBOE launched the BTC futures trading on Dec. 11, attracting so much trading volume to their site that it temporarily went down. The day of the launch, BTC prices remained between around $16,500 and $17,500.
Looking back to before their launch, a Nov. 2017 CBOE blog post by CFA Russell Rhoads speculating on the unknown potential of Bitcoin futures reads:
“The question I am constantly hearing is, ‘How will the futures prices relate to spot bitcoin pricing’, and the best (and most honest) answer I can give is, ‘I don’t know’ [...] I’ve heard arguments for the futures trading at both a premium and a discount to the spot price, personally I think the best strategy is to see what the market tells us when bitcoin futures are available for trading.”
CME Group launched the world’s second Bitcoin futures trading on Dec. 18, with each contract representing five bitcoins, whereas CBOE’s contracts each represent one bitcoin. CME’s first Bitcoin contracts will expire January 26.
Cointelegraph wrote in early January that the release of Bitcoin futures is an indication that more institutions, like those on Wall Street, are becoming willing to recognize Bitcoin as a legitimate asset.
By Molly Jane Zuckerman
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