Cboe Beats CME to the Market, Will Launch Bitcoin Futures December 10

Very few people would have imagined just a year ago the rapid pace of bitcoin adoption by established financial institutions today. We are now seeing two of the largest exchange holding companies in the world, CME and Cboe, racing to be the first to answer Wall Street’s appetite for bitcoin derivatives – and Cboe just got a leg up on its rival.

Also read: CME Rival Cboe Suggests its Coming Futures Market Would Include Bitcoin Cash

Cboe Global Markets (Nasdaq: CBOE) has announced today that its Cboe Futures Exchange (CFE) subsidiary plans to offer trading in bitcoin futures beginning on Sunday, December 10, just over a week before the CME planned launch. Attempting to further attract investors to its venue over CME’s, the Cboe head also announced that trading will be free through December.

Ed Tilly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cboe Global Markets, said: “Given the unprecedented interest in bitcoin, it’s vital we provide clients the trading tools to help them express their views and hedge their exposure. We are committed to encouraging fairness and liquidity in the bitcoin market. To promote this, we will initially offer XBT futures trading for free.”

Product Details

The Cboe’s bitcoin futures will trade on CFE under the ticker symbol ‘XBT.’ The new instruments are cash-settled contracts based on the Gemini exchange’s auction price for bitcoin, denominated in U.S. dollars.

The company explains that its XBT futures are specifically designed to allow participants to implement straightforward trading strategies, through settlement to a single, tradeable auction price.

It previously revealed that they will have multiple contracts with several expiry cycles and also four serial expirations, among other details. It has even been suggested that in the future Cboe may add futures trading on bitcoin cash to differentiate its offering from that of the larger CME.

What does this race to launch bitcoin futures trading mean for investors? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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