CME Group, the largest commodity exchange in the world, said it wants to start offering futures contracts on popular cryptocurrency bitcoin by the end of the year, pending regulatory approval, according to the Wall Street Journal . The move would seem to lend further credibility to once-shadowy financial product, which is unconnected to any sovereign nation and unregulated by any central bank. The Journal noted, too, that a big appeal of futures contracts is that they can act as a hedge against wild price fluctuations, such as those for which bitcoin has become notorious. Introducing such a product to the market would likely make bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies more attractive to investors, as it would become less risky and more accessible to mainstream investors. However before CME Group can do anything, it first must get approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates the commodities market. Despite the uncertainty as to whether it will allow the plan to go through, the news sent bitcoin values surging: for the first time, one unit of the currency is now worth more than $6,400, representing a 4 percent increase.