The Chicago exchange was due to start trading in bitcoin futures, moving the cryptocurrency towards the mainstream

A world expert in financial options has warned that those hoping to use futures contracts to bet against the spiralling price of bitcoin were doomed to lose money.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, an authority on derivative markets, said that there was “no way to short the bitcoin ‘bubble’ ” properly.

The American-Lebanese academic and hedge fund manager was tweeting to his more-than-200,000 followers hours before trading was due to go live last night in the first futures based on the virtual currency. He said that the opening of trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange was unlikely to halt a rise that has led the cryptocurrency’s price to nearly treble in a month to about $15,000, briefly approaching $20,000. The rise in its value has surpassed