CBOE abandons bitcoin futures as interest in cryptocurrency decreases

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CBOE Global Markets, the first major US stock market to offer bitcoin futures, has announced it will end the nascent market just over a year after its debut.

The Chicago-based group said on Friday that it "was badessing its approach as to how it plans to continue to offer digital badet derivatives for trading purposes" and will not list new deals at market prices. bitcoin term, which means that the product will disappear during the last open contracts. are settled in June.

This decision comes after the fall in demand for crypto-currencies of individual investors and its price. The CBOE product was selling for $ 3,890 per bitcoin on Friday, after a peak of $ 20,500 shortly after its launch in December 2017.

CBOE's entry, followed less than a week later by rival CME Group, CME, was interpreted as a sign that the wild and unregulated market for bitcoin had been open to US financial markets.

But CBOE quickly lost ground in favor of CME. CBOE's open market interest was less than 3,000 equivalent bitcoins this week, compared with more than 17,000 at CME. CME recorded a record day in February: the equivalent of 92,000 bitcoins, worth $ 360 million, has changed hands.

CBOE has confirmed that it will continue to honor its existing contracts, whose settlement date is in April, May and June.

The exchange movement was not expected.

Thursday, at a conference on futures markets, John Deters, head of strategy at the CBOE, said that it was "healthy" that the cryptocurrency market was less heated than it was. A year ago.

"The market would not exist without retail [investors]but I think we see institutional activity as the next frontier, "he told the FIA ​​International Futures Industry Conference in Boca Raton, Florida. He estimated that about 30% of CBOE's business in the contracts came from outside the United States.

Mr. Deters spoke in a discussion group entitled "Cryptocurrency and Derivatives: The Battle for Domination".

The CBOE contract price is based on data provided by Gemini Exchange, one of the smallest cryptocurrency exchanges.

While the Chicago duo struggled to create liquidity in their markets, competitors were frustrated by the fact that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has not yet approved the crypto-competitor futures contracts. Bakkt, a warehouse for digital badets supported by Intercontinental Exchange, and SeedCX are both awaiting regulatory approval for their derivatives.

Additional report by Nicole Bullock in New York