A trader signals an offer in the Eurodollar pit at the CME Group prior to the Federal Reserve’s announcement that interest rates would remain unchanged November 2, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Scott Olson/Getty Images
- CME Group, a leading marketplace for derivatives which handles 3 billion contracts worth about $1 quadrillion annually, is set to roll out bitcoin futures by the fourth quarter.
- A bitcoin future will allow investors to bet on the future price of bitcoin without having to actually hold the coin itself.
- It could bring more Wall Street firms into bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Just when you thought you finally got your head around bitcoin, along comes a new bitcoin-linked financial product: bitcoin futures.
CME, the Chicago-based exchange giant, said on Tuesday that it would launch a bitcoin futures product before the end of the year. Last year CME launched a bitcoin index CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate. The bitcoin futures will be based off of this rate. ..
