Well, almost without a hitch.
The CBOE website was down briefly immediately after the Bitcoin Futures were launched due to heavy site traffic, but that was quickly rectified.
Bitcoin Futures launched, and website immediately crashes.
Other than that, things have mostly gone on without a hitch.
There were 2 trading stoppages due to price increases but that was part of the limit up standards that are currently set in place any time the currency gets too volatile.
Just over 3,000 contracts have traded since the launch last night.
That might sound like a lot, but it only represented about $50 million worth of USD.
Which is not terrible, but compared to something like gold, which can trade $50 billion worth of USD in a single session, it's not a lot of money.
Which is a major reason that many of the bitcoin bulls are so bullish still.
In the grand scheme of things the bitcoin market is not very large, and the cryptocurrency market as a whole is not all that large.
In fact, here's some perspective on the Bitcoin market:
Bitcoin represents about a $300 billion market.
Gold is close to $7 trillion.
U.S. Stock market is $25 trillion
U.S. Bond market is $38 trillion.
What is even more compelling is that Bitcoin is border-less. Meaning money can come into it from anywhere. Which means it's overall reach should be that much greater.
It is no wonder that the Winklevoss twins recently stated that they have no idea ultimately how high bitcoin will go, but they are confident that it will be a multi-trillion dollar asset at some point in the future.
Looking at the above it is not that much of a stretch to say so...
Some thoughts on the CBOE Futures launch:
So far, not much volatility has been seen in the price of bitcoin since the launch, but that doesn't mean there won't be.
The next big product to launch is on the 18th (1 week from today) when the CME launches their Futures and Options products.
Then the Nasdaq will follow suit, and launch their Futures products early in 2018.
One caveat to keep in mind is that some of the brokers allowing trading of the CBOE Bitcoin Futures products are not allowing shorting at this time. For example Interactive Brokers is not allowing any short positions to be taken. Keeping that in mind, there is still likely limited ability to short by those that want to.
Taking all that into account though, I would say the launch of the CBOE Bitcoin Futures products was a resounding success and am very happy with the results thus far.
Looking forward to more launches and more coins eventually being included in products like these.
Stay informed my friends.
Sources:
http://bitcoinetc.io/cboe-launches-bitcoin-futures-site-immediately-crashes
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/11/bitcoin-futures-up-and-running-but-trading-is-light.html
Image Sources:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/latest-bitcoin-futures-rise-trading-000918318.html
http://bitcoinetc.io/cboe-launches-bitcoin-futures-site-immediately-crashes
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/silicon-valley-winklevoss-twins-cameo-784837
