American stock exchange Nasdaq, which is one of the largest in the world, is preparing to launch bitcoin futures in the first quarter of 2019, Bloomberg reports, citing its own sources. The plans to launch a new product associated with virtual assets still remain relevant to the platform, despite the deep market downturn.
The site actively cooperates on this issue with the financial regulator - the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Last year, bitcoin futures added two Chicago exchanges to their listing - CME Group and CBOE Global Markets. This happened against the background of increasing interest of traders to crypto assets and the general growth of the market.
Earlier, Nasdaq representatives explained that exchange contracts would differ from CBOE and CME futures. The exchange plans to create bitcoin futures on the model of total returns, based on the current, not the future price of the cryptocurrency. According to Bloomberg, Nasdaq derivatives will target the bitcoin spot price from a variety of exchanges. It is worth noting that the current CME contracts use data from four platforms, CBOE - from one.
After the launch of bitcoin futures on the Chicago stock exchanges in December 2017, the cost of the first cryptocurrency reached $20,000, and by January 2018 the industry capitalization exceeded $830 billion. Many crypto enthusiasts hoped that the new tools would initiate large-scale institutional investment in cryptocurrencies and give a new round of development to the entire digital asset market. However, this has not happened yet, the volume of trading in bitcoin derivatives is still insignificant, and the price of the underlying asset since the launch of futures fell from $20,000 to $3,749 (at the time of writing).
Last month, Nasdaq announced that it was going to add a cryptocurrency price analysis tool to its Analytics Hub. The service will be intended for institutional investors. The Analytics Hub, launched last year, uses machine learning and natural language processing algorithms to analyze data on social networks and other alternative sources. The goal is to provide investors with the best way to assess the movement occurring in the market.
Participants in the crypto market have high hopes for new tools for institutional investors. Experts believe that their arrival on the “field” of digital assets will help break the bearish trend and give impetus to the rise in the value of cryptocurrencies.
At the same time, recently it became known that the launch of the institutional bitcoin platform Bakkt, the first products of which should be bitcoin futures contracts with physical delivery of the asset, will take place no earlier than January 24, 2019. Representatives of the project explained that the new listing dates will allow additional time for clients and market participants performing the clearing function to begin trading and storing the asset under a new contract.
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