The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) may be giving traders a holiday gift in the form of an ether futures products by the end of 2018.
In all of the Bitcoin mania, it may come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with the industry that there are in fact more virtual currencies out there, 1910 more according to CoinMarketCap actually.
The first runner-up position in the market’s top three belongs to Ethereum, currently trading at just over $280 with an impressive market cap of over $28 billion. However, if CBOE has their way, it will soon be this digital currency’s time to shine in the form of ether futures.
Spotlight on Ethereum
Business Insider reported that the major Chicago-based exchange is looking to unveil the new addition to their futures family by the end of this year. December 2017 the exchange launch the Bitcoin futures product, a highlight in the original crypto’s already memorable month.
Danny Kim, who is the head of growth at SFOX, gave his input:
CBOE’s offering will enable crypto traders to take both long and short positions in ether, and it’s another step forward to a new accepted asset class. With this, I think the new investment opportunity will take crypto out of the bearish market and reverse to a new bull.
Sources close to the situation have said that as with Bitcoin futures, CBOE will look to Gemini to base its ether futures on. The New-York based crypto exchange is run by so-called ‘Bitcoin billionaires’, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
CBOE feeling positive
So, why the wait? Sources claim that CBOE wants the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to be completely comfortable with the product before it is released to the public. This may be helped the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent comments about Ethereum.
William Hinman, the SEC’s director of corporate finance, previously said:
Based on my understanding of the present state of ether, the Ethereum network, and its decentralized structure, current offers and sales of ether are not securities transactions.
The president and COO of CBOE, Chris Concannon, even mentioned at that time that this is a positive sign for the possible creation of ether futures.
While US-based CME Group also launched their own Bitcoin futures product last year, they will not be following in the footsteps of CBOE this time with regard to ether futures. The exchange’s CEO, Terry Duffy, said:
I will take a wait and see approach with Bitcoin for now.
According to the article, CBOE also previously mentioned the possibility of launching a Bitcoin Cash futures product as well. However, no reports on this have been made so far.
Do you think that we’ll see an ether futures product by December? Let us know in the comments below!
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