On October 31, the CME-Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced that it would launch Bitcoin futures contracts in the fourth quarter of 2017, pending relevant regulatory reviews.
The announcement stated that the futures contract will be cash settled based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR-Bitcoin Reference Rate), which is the daily reference value for the price of Bitcoin against the US dollar. Bitcoin futures will be listed and governed by CME Group’s rules. Since November 2016, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has cooperated with Crypto Facilities to calculate and publish the Bitcoin reference value BRR and develop the CME CF Bitcoin Real-Time Index (BRTI), providing price transparency for the spot Bitcoin market.
Terry Duffy, chairman and CEO of CME Group, said: "With increasing customer interest in the changing cryptocurrency market, we have decided to launch a Bitcoin futures contract. As the world's largest regulated foreign exchange market, CME Group will create space for new financial engines to provide investors with transparency, price discovery and risk transfer capabilities."
Founded in 1848, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is the oldest futures exchange in the world. It is the largest futures exchange in the United States and the world's leading exchange for buying and selling futures and futures options contracts, providing investors with a number of financial and agricultural products transactions. In December 2002, Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
The announcement stated that the market value of encrypted digital currencies has grown to US$172 billion, with Bitcoin accounting for 54% of the total. The Bitcoin spot market is also growing day by day, with a transaction value of approximately $1.5 billion.
According to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, after the Chicago Mercantile Exchange issued a statement, at 10:00 Beijing time on October 31, the price of Bitcoin broke a new high of US$6,400, reaching US$6,415.28, and the market value of Bitcoin exceeded US$106 billion.
On January 1, 2017, the price of Bitcoin was below $1,000 and has increased by more than 500%. Bitcoin price trend in the past 12 months:
(Blue Whale Internet Finance: Jin Ziqi)
