Cboe stops bitcoin trading


03/20/2019

At the end of 2017, expectation of introducing bitcoin exchange futures contributed to its appreciation of up to $ 20,000 at the last stage of inflation of the cryptocurrency market bubble. Now bitcoin costs about $ 4,000, according to Coinmarketcap, and the exchange operator Cboe Global Markets, who first started trading futures for the most popular cryptocurrency, is preparing to abandon them.



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Monthly futures are traded on Cboe under the ticker XBT. When the current contract expires, the main contract for traders for the next month starts, and the exchange regularly adds new ones. At the end of last week, Cboe warned traders that "now it does not intend to issue additional XBT futures contracts," as reported by The Wall Street Journal

This means that bitcoin futures trading will end when the last of the current contracts expires in June.

Growth of quotations at the first in the history of bitcoin futures trading was impressive. Trading at Cboe started in December 2017, when bitcoin cost about $ 15,000. On the first day the price exceeded $ 18,000, the exchange had to suspend trading twice. Soon the course soared to $ 20,000.

Participants of the crypto market eagerly awaited appearance of futures. Many believed that it indicates recognition of cryptocurrency as a tool of the traditional financial market, and arrival of new traders will contribute to the further growth of quotations. However, this resulted in subsequent collapse in prices. Market professionals, who realized that a giant bubble inflated in the cryptocurrency sector, got a convenient opportunity to play for a fall. Until then, there was no such possibility.

By the beginning of February 2018, the bitcoin rate had fallen to $ 6,000 and was trading above this level until mid-November, after which over the month it fell almost twice more, to $ 3,200. Interest of market participants also fell. Investbank Goldman Sachs, which in early 2018 announced its intention to create a department for bitcoin trading, did not realize its plans. Cboe "assesses its future actions in terms of how it plans to continue to offer derivatives for digital assets for trading," the exchange said.

However, market participants will have the opportunity to trade bitcoin futures. Another Chicago exchange operator, CME, which started trading in tools one week later at Cboe, is doing better. Turnover at Cboe last Thursday was $ 8 million, but at CME it was about $ 90 million, according to the stock exchanges.

source: bloomberg.com