CME CEO Says Altcoin Futures Are Still Some Time Away

The world’s largest futures exchange operator doesn’t plan to offer futures on any coins, other than Bitcoin, any time soon says chairman and CEO of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group, Terrence A. Duffy, in speaking with Bloomberg on July 25.

Duffy defended his view during the interview, stating:

“In my nearly four decades in trading, Bitcoin futures might have been the most controversial launch of a product. I will not just put products up there to see where they’re going to go. I will take a wait and see approach with Bitcoin for now,”

Disappointment for the crypto community

The comments of CME’s CEO have debunked previous rumors and speculations that the world’s largest futures exchange platform was preparing to launch Ethereum and Litecoin futures.

The rumors were fueled largely by the recent data provided by CME Group on its Bitcoin future activities for Q2. The volatility and total volume of Bitcoin futures in Q2 of 2018 witnessed immense growth.

According to the data provided CME, Bitcoin futures on the platform experienced a staggering 93% increase in average daily volume, while open interests climbed by 58% over Q1 2018.

Similar to futures in the stock exchange market, crypto-related futures are standardized agreements to buy or sell a specified digital asset on a set future date at an agreed price.

This financial product can be used by both speculators and industry participants like miners alike. By ‘locking’ in a price using a futures contract, miners can have more predictable revenue streams to manage their operations.

Crypto-enthusiast expected that with the growth of Bitcoin futures, the company would follow up by adding futures for other altcoins. This seems to be different from crypto exchanges, which frequently add new coins as they become popular.

Despite the numbers in the recent CME report, CEO Terrence Duffy still insists that cryptocurrency markets are polarizing and too unpredictable for now. Bitcoin still appears to be an experiment for the company.

Duffy said before he doesn’t own bitcoin personally, but he believes the cryptocurrency may well change the future of finance. Duffy also added:

“We’re not seeing huge flows regardless and that’s OK. This is going to take some time one way or another and we’ll do it the right way,”

The recent surge in the volumes of Bitcoin futures came amid signs that institutional investors are increasingly looking at entering the cryptocurrency market.

Within the last month, the blockchain industry has received some high-end endorsements from the likes of Blackrock, Goldman Sachs, and other institutional leaders.

Altcoin Futures are not dead

Futures, which offer a quick and cost-effective method of trade in the financial and commodity markets, has been growing in popularity in the blockchain industry. Although CME has dismissed rumors of offering altcoin futures in the near future, major rivals Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) have been open to the idea.

Similarly, leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, Japanese financial holdings company Nomura and most recently SIX Group (owners of SIX Swiss Exchange) have launched dedicated offerings of cryptocurrency custody to institutional investors.

Hardware wallet provider Ledger also announced that it will be attacking the institutional custody market as well as recently reported.