NEW YORK/SYDNEY: Bitcoin futures received a lukewarm reception at its launch on the CME Group Inc on Sunday, although market experts believe a recent rally in the cryptocurrency has further to go.
The CME bitcoin front-month futures contract did open higher at US$20,650, but dropped 6 percent within the first half hour.
The contract was last at US$18,805, below the US$19,500 reference price set by the exchange for the January contract.
The reference price, from which price limits are set, is US$19,600 for the February contract, US$19,700 for March and US$19,900 for June, according to CME.
On December 10, Chicago-based derivatives exchange Cboe Global Markets launched bitcoin futures, which saw the price surge nearly 20 percent in its debut.
The week-old bitcoin futures contract at the Cboe was last trading at US$18,890, up 4.3 per cent.
Spot bitcoin eased 1.9 per cent on the Bitstamp exchange to US$18,650, after surging to a record high of US$19,666 on Sunday.
The launch of bitcoin futures is viewed as a major step in the digital currency’s path toward legitimacy, which should encourage the entry of big institutional investors.
“We saw a nice open on light volume, but pretty uneventful so far,” Spencer Bogart, partner at Blockchain Capital LLC, said shortly after trading began on Sunday.
“This is a brand-new asset class and I think perhaps a lot of investors want to sit back and see how this plays out before dipping their toes in this market.”
Volume on CME was recently at 590 contracts. On its debut on December 10, the Cboe traded nearly 4,000 contracts during the full session.
Bitcoin was set up in 2008 by an individual or group calling itself Satoshi Nakamoto, and was the first digital currency to successfully use cryptography to keep transactions secure and hidden, making traditional financial regulation difficult if not impossible.
Some investors believe the CME bitcoin futures could attract more institutional demand because the final settlement price is culled from multiple exchanges. — Reuters