CME Group will start trading bitcoin futures from December 18, after receiving approval from the regulator.
The authorization means for the first time the digital currency will be traded on a Wall Street exchange and subject to federal supervision. Senior banking figures in the U.S. and Asia have called the currency, which operates independent of any central bank, a fraud.
The move is a another incremental step towards credibility for the highest profile cryptocurrency and will open up bitcoin trading to a wider group of investors and traders, who until now have resisted acquiring the virtual currency on the obscure private exchanges.
Activity and Volatility to Rise
The CME Group is using a process known as «self-certification,» which is when an exchange pledges that the new instruments will not break any U.S. federal securities laws while the price of bitcoin futures will be based on the price the digital currency is going for on four major bitcoin exchanges, Bitstamp, GDAX, itBit and Kraken.
Japanese bitcoin exchange bitFlyer officially launched in the United States recently and with in excess of 30 percent of worldwide bitcoin exchange volume currently facilitated through bitFlyer, the expansion into the U.S. promises to see a further surge in volumes once American traders connect.
