CME Group announces Bitcoin futures launch date

Bitcoin Futures will be active on CME Group’s platform as of 10 December 2017.
A few weeks ago, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group), announced its plan to implement support for Bitcoin futures on its platform before the close of the year. According to the firm’s latest market specs, Bitcoin futures may be active on the platform as early as December 10th, after approval is granted by the relevant regulatory authorities.

CME Group revealed, at the end of October, that they would add Bitcoin futures to their exchange platform. This would allow investors to participate in the market, albeit with lower risk. The move appealed widely to both the crypto community and several mainstream investors, as was reflected in the price of Bitcoin rising to $7,500 following the announcement. While CME Group is not the first exchange to offer this service, the move has hugely influenced the current financial landscape.

According to the CME Group CEO, Terry Duffy, it is only natural that the world’s largest regulated trading marketplace should enable users to have a safe way to participate in the market. Duffy expressed his belief that CME Group’s Bitcoin futures will allow users to invest with ease and added transparency, thus reducing the risk.

According to the exchange platform's latest market specs, their Bitcoin futures feature will be available on December 10th, following approval by US regulatory agencies. CME intends to list Bitcoin futures as BTC/USD, with an added contract unit of five index points, equating to $25. Bitcoin futures will appear on all CME-related platforms, including CME, CME Globex, and Clearport. According to CME, all registered monthly contracts will be listed to the nearest two months in the quarterly structure.

Several experts have suggested that CME's implementation of Bitcoin futures will bring some stability to an extremely volatile market, as the system will not allow prices to differ more than 20% either way from previous prices, despite the added $25 fee. However, making the cryptocurrency market less volatile goes against the initial idea of Bitcoin, which seeks to be a decentralized cryptocurrency.

At the moment, the crypto community, and mainstream investors alike, are holding their breath to see how CME’s Bitcoin futures implementation will change or influence the market and current financial landscape.