Terry Duffy, CME Group chairman and CEO, could launch the bitcoin futures contracts as early as the second week of December. Being the world’s largest futures exchange, this is a big deal. As reported 2 weeks ago, this could mean a substantial increase in liquidity for the cryptocurrency markets. A regulated bitcoin could also the increase the chance of a bitcoin ETF.

Futures are contracts on between buyers and sellers to exchange an asset (physical or “virtual”, at a pre-determined price in the near future. Put simply, futures are a sort of bets between parties on a future price of a commodity or financial instrument.

According to Autonomous Next, there are more than 120 hedge funds focused on cryptocurrencies right now. Combined they manage a total of $2.3 billion in assets.