Rumours have been floating around that Nasdaq Inc is making progress with the United States futures regulator - Commodity Futures Trading Commission in order to gain an approval to offer its crypto-based futures product. Sources have spoken to Bloomberg and they have allegedly revealed that Nasdaq could bring in Bitcoin futures as soon as the first quarter of next year. Nevertheless, as of now, Nasdaq hasn’t officially confirmed the latest development.

Over the past few weeks, Bitcoin has been seeing massive losses by market cap and it has tanked to the lowest level this year even sinking as low as the $3,600 region, so this news comes at a time of turmoil.

The operator of the world's second-biggest stock exchange, Nasdaq Inc had initially announced their plan to list Bitcoin Futures on its exchange in November 2017 and at the time, there was a well thought out plan to effectuate its proposition by the middle of this year but these dates have clearly been delayed.

During the same time, CME Group Inc and Cboe Global Markets Inc both launched their contracts in December last year in order to take advantage of the crypto hype train. Their offerings were seen as something to draw in institutional investors to the crypto industry but the response from traditional investors hasn’t been special. The main reason for the plain performance of futures market was the volatility in Bitcoin spot market.

The competition

According to BTC Manager, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) have come out and said that they will launch their Bitcoin Futures product on the 24th January even though it was initially dubbed to be available on 12th December. During this period, the firm stated that the delay would serve the company to get prepared its platform to serve a big volume of traditional investors.

“ICE Futures U.S., Inc. will list the new Bakkt Bitcoin (USD) Daily Futures Contract for trading on trade date Thursday, January 24, 2019, subject to regulatory approval. The new listing timeframe will provide additional time for the customer and clearing member onboarding prior to the start of trading and warehousing of the new contract.”

There could be some massive gains in the first quarter of next year as Bitcoin Futures are set to be released.

What are your thoughts? Let us know down below!