Tuesday marks one year since the launch of bitcoin futures, an event hailed at the time as a momentous step forward for proponents of the nascent digital-asset industry that was seeking validity through mainstream adoption.

For bitcoin bulls, it couldn’t have started any better. On Cboe Global Markets CBOE, -0.85% , futures opened at $15,000 on, jumped above $17,000 later in the session and saw trading so vigorous that the market had to be halted more than once. CME Group Inc. CME, -2.54% launched its contract on Dec. 18.

Now, after one year of trading, the exchange halts are as prevalent as ever, but for less cheerful reasons. As bitcoin euphoria gave way to a 2018 rout, the price of the underlying asset has tumbled to multimonth lows, losing as much as 85% from its all-time high. On Dec. 7, the Cboe front-month contract hit a record low at $3,160, down nearly 80% from the opening price at $15,000.

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But the selloff in spot bitcoin BTCUSD, +1.06% does not reflect the success or failure of the product, says Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at eToro. “They’ve managed to open up the market to users who otherwise wouldn’t have access, so in that regard, I think they have been somewhat of a success,” he said. “Not only did they allow people to go long, but it opened up short selling to a wider audience.”

However, volume data suggests a wave of institutional money into the industry—that proponents had hoped—has come up short. The average daily volume on the CME Group Inc. exchange is just over 3,500 contracts a day and in a July 26 interview with Bloomberg, CME CEO Terry Duffy said: “We’re not seeing huge flows.”

Since the interview, futures volumes have increased, albeit marginally.

Bitcoin futures volumes

Despite bitcoin being in the midst of a long drawn-out bear market, the new year will see two new competitors to the industry. The Nasdaq is moving ahead with plans to launch its own bitcoin futures product in 2019, and the parent company of the rival New York Stock Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange, said it would launch a bitcoin futures contract in January.

“There’s going to be further progress in the futures space,” said Greenspan of the Nasdaq launch when discussing the outlook for bitcoin futures in 2019.

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