By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 25th, 2024
Bitcoin price hits new record value above $6400 after CME Group announced to launch Bitcoin Futures contracts by year-end.
Since past few weeks, Bitcoin seems to be on a record-breaking trend and is inching towards new highs with new optimism circulating around the largest cryptocurrency by market value.
Today, the price of Bitcoin has touched a new high of $6415.28 average across all global exchanges. This jump to a new all-time-high comes within a week’s time after Bitcoin touched $6250 high amidst rumours of China cancelling its ban of its local exchanges and cryptocurrency trading platforms.
Today’s spike in Bitcoin price comes amidst CME Croup Inc. – world’s largest futures market operator said that it is planning to launch Bitcoin futures contract by the fourth quarter of this financial years and is waiting for regulatory approvals.
Terry Duffy, CME Group chairman and CEO, said: “Given increasing client interest in the evolving cryptocurrency markets, we have decided to introduce a bitcoin futures contract. As the world’s largest regulated FX marketplace, CME Group is the natural home for this new vehicle that will provide investors with transparency, price discovery and risk transfer capabilities.”
Based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR), the Bitcoin Futures Contract will be completely settled in cash. The Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) is once-a-day reference rate of Bitcoin in U.S. Dollar as of 4:00 p.m. London time. The BRR was created by the CME Group last year in November by working in tandem with UK-based Bitcoin futures exchange Crypto Facilities Ltd.
Today, there are several other exchanges like GDAX, itBit, Bitstamp and Kraken that contribute towards calculating the Bitcoin Reference Rate.
Note that the CME Group is not the first one to proceed ahead with the idea of having Bitcoin futures contract. Previously, the largest U.S. options exchange – Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) said that its Futures exchange is planning to offer cash-settled bitcoin futures maximum by early 2018.
The CBOE is currently waiting for an approval nod from U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and with work in co-ordination with Gemini Trust by using their market data in order to create bitcoin indexes and derivatives.
The acceptance of trading in Bitcoin derivatives with give a big boost to the development of digital currency and help it to get established as a more legitimate asset class in mainstream finance.
Managing Partner and the Head of Research at Fundstrat, Tom Lee says that his prediction that Bitcoin with touch $22000 by 2022 is partly based on the expectation that Bitcoin derivatives products will launch soon in the near future.
Ari Paul, CIO and managing partner at BlockTower Capital, says “The addition of CFTC-regulated bitcoin derivatives will bring a great deal of liquidity and legitimacy to the cryptocurrency ecosystem.”
Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies which offer a decentralized way of transaction money have certainly created a divide between the opinions of experts in the global financial community. While some are highly pessimistic others have preferred to grow with the optimism. For now, the Bitcoin prices are indicative of the fact that majority of global investor still consider it to be a highly preferred option for investing.
With the new all-time-high Bitcoin has touched a market capitalization of roughly $106 billion. At the press time Bitcoin is trading at $6353.24 level, according to the CoinMarketCap.