CME Seeks CFTC Approval to Double Permissible Bitcoin Futures Position as Interest Soars

The US financial market regulators have received an application from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) requesting the former to permit traders to hold Bitcoin futures position twice the current level.

In this regard, CME has already tabled its detailed strategy with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

If CFTC approval the proposal, each trader will be able to open 2,000 spot contracts per month, double from the current level of 1,000. CME decided to file a petition with the CFTC after considering the robust demand for Bitcoin futures with trading volumes breaking records frequently.

The CFTC, as per Nasdaq, officially mentions that low-risk trading assets are not subjected to any kind of limits. As a result, an agreement to minimize the stringent controls for CME could be considered with increasing faith on Bitcoin (BTC) options.

A spokesperson issued the following statement: “This is one more way we’re providing customers, institutional traders and end-users with additional flexibility to trade and hedge bitcoin price risk.”

CME was the first exchange to launch Bitcoin futures in December 2017. There was no look back as the market continued to gather steam, with the second half of 2019 anticipated to record considerable rise in overall interest.

By this month end, Bakkt, the regulated crypto asset trading platform provider and custodian firm, intends to unveil physical Bitcoin futures, with returns in BTC, instead of fiat money. Notably, cryptocurrency exchange Binance is also testing two potential cryptocurrency futures trading platforms.