Bitcoin survived its initial institutional confrontation Sunday night as the crypto’s spot price jumped $1,500 on the open of futures pricing on the CBOE.
The fear among some bitcoin holders was that the cash settlement futures contract would allow for large shorts to come into the market starting 6 PM Sunday night in New York.
In the first minutes of trading bitcoin jumped $1,200 to $15,740. Overnight the crypto moved up to trade in $16,500 range.
The CBOE as well as next Sunday night’s CME futures trading is a cash market, which means the 3-month contracts allows two parties to bet on the price without actually buying bitcoin.
The futures contracts, which derive their value from the price of the digital currency, oblige a buyer to pay for bitcoin at an agreed-upon price at a certain date in the future.
While the CBOE’s futures market is much smaller in liquidity than next Sunday’s CME options opening, so the number of futures contracts could double this time next week.
So perhaps the futures are bright for bitcoin.