Nasdaq Could Offer Bitcoin Futures In 1Q19

Bloomberg has detailed that Nasdaq Inc. is moving forward with an idea to introduce Bitcoin futures, betting on continuing interest in spite of the cryptocurrency’s sensational dip over the past year. Nasdaq has been working to fulfill the concerns of the US’ primary swaps regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, before introducing the contracts, individuals aware of the situation informed Bloomberg.

The New York exchange administrator, which was first said to be planning the listing of Bitcoin futures last year, prefers to facilitate trading in the first quarter of 2019.

Bitcoin futures caught the financial world briefly-and faced lot of resistance from huge derivative brokers-when CME Group Inc. Global Markets Inc. and CBOE utilized a speedy process of self-certification to put their contracts on the market last December at the peak of the worldwide crypto rage.

In spite of huge anticipation that Bitcoin futures would lead to a unused era of regulation crypto venture, trading in them was modest and the digital cash plunged from approximately $ 20,000 to less than $ 4,000. Following the addition of CME and Cboe contracts, the CFTC disclosed an advanced survey process for exchanges to list virtual currency derivatives.

Back in January, Nasdaq Chief Official Officer Adena Friedman revealed the exchange was assessing how to distinguish its plans from contracts already provided by its competitors. The Nasdaq futures will be based on the Bitcoin’s price on various spot exchanges, as compiled by VanEck Partners Corp., the individual said. CME takes into account price movements in four markets, whereas it’s only one in case of CBOE. Separately, VanEck has been attempting to win endorsement from the Securities and Exchange Commission for a crypto-based exchange-traded fund.

Nasdaq is not the only organization, which is planning to launch Bitcoin derivative. Intercontinental Exchange Inc., which owns New York Stock Exchange, announced a week before that it will introduce its own contracts on Jan. 24.