By
Steve Muchoki
April 18th, 2024
Bitcoin market is again flooded with huge amount of investor orders as the CBOE’s futures contracts go live.
The past weekend has been quite a bumpy ride again for Bitcoin, as a lot of volatility was seen specifically before the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s (CBOE) Bitcoin futures contracts went live on Sunday evening December 10.
On Saturday, the price of the most valued cryptocurrency slipped by more than 15% making a 24-hour intraday low of $13,674.90, according to CoinMarketCap.
This fall further intensified and continued on the next day of Sunday, just hours before the launch of the much-awaited Bitcoin Futures contracts by CBOE exchange.
However, as the launch time was approaching closer, Bitcoin managed to regain its lost ground and was seen trading on a positive momentum. As soon as the Bitcoin futures launched at 6 pm EST, December 10, there was a huge spike in traffic of orders and the CBOE website crashed for a few moments once the contracts went live.
The CBOE Exchange soon announced on official Twitter that the website downtime was the result of the massive influx of traffic.
Due to heavy traffic on our website, visitors to https://t.co/jb3O722hoo may find that it is performing slower than usual and may at times be temporarily unavailable. All trading systems are operating normally.
— Cboe (@CBOE) December 10, 2017
Ever since the launch of Bitcoin futures contracts, a positive wave has swept the investors and Bitcoin continued to rally above $17,000 triggering huge orders. At the press time, Bitcoin is trading at $16,699.30 with a 22% increase over its 24-hour intraday low.
So far the data suggests that at the moment buyers are dominating the charts, and the orders are majorly centered around the first expiry of the futures contracts scheduled on January 17, 2018. As per the current data of CNBC, 2308 contracts have been sold as of 0:25:07 AM EST, December 11.
Post-launch, the scenario shows that Bitcoin futures contracts have received quite a positive response till now and rise in the price can continue further. CME Group will also launch the futures contracts on next Monday on December 18, 2017.
Several executives from CBOE state that the launch of futures contracts will give a further boost to the launch of different products and services around Bitcoin with a possible shift towards notes and exchange-traded funds.
With the increase in global acceptance of Bitcoin and its further penetration into the mainstream economy, analysts start predicting that Bitcoin’s rise onwards is certain. Managing partner at Kenectic Capital, Jehan Chu, said Bitcoin could well possibly reach $50,000 by the end of 2018.
During an interview with Bloomberg TV, Jehan said:
“I think we’re going to see $50,000 by the end of 2018 for bitcoin. I think with the one-two punch with the CBOE and CME I think the entire world is on watch now for what is to come and what the real liquidity that can enter this market will actually look like.”
With China withdrawing itself from the cryptocurrency trading market, Jehan believes that PBoC is making serious efforts to bring its own state-owned cryptocurrency in 2018:
“I think in 2018 we will see the first state-backed digital currency in one form or another and I bet you it will come from Asia.”
Grey Dwyer, BitMEX head of business development also shared his vision of how futures contracts are going to impact the bitcoin community during his interview with Business Insider:
Bitcoin now trades, pretty much, on unregulated markets. The fact that it’s going to start trading on the CME and CFE brings an air of legitimacy to the space, because it’s going to bring in mainstream and professional investors, and have them be more comfortable participating in the futures market which is more regulated.
This is a big endorsement for the digital currency trading space. We could see more flows come into it and also, not only that, but futures help dampen and reduce the volatility of the price. So, this could help stabilize bitcoin as an asset class. And basically increase the utility function of it as a source of economic — as a method of economic transactions.
When trying to predict Bitcoin’s future price, Mr. Dwyer stays rather optimistic sharing the same point of view as that of Jehan Chu:
Now, looking at the current market cap of bitcoin as going to $300 billion, with more institutional money coming in we could see market caps go up to $500 billion, which could — or even $1 trillion — which could increase the price of bitcoin from now $15,000 up to $20,000, $25,000, or even $50,000.
Michael Novogratz, famous investor and creator of $500 million crypto-hedge-fund, has also predicted that Bitcoin can touch $40,000 by the end of 2018.