CBOE Bitcoin Futures Open with High Volatility and Major Price Swings

The CBOE launched Bitcoin futures contracts on Sunday, at 5 PM CT, and led to major volatility and price swings within minutes.

If the past week wasn’t eventful enough, Bitcoin’s price saw major swings as Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) officially launched their Bitcoin futures contracts on Sunday, at 5 PM Central Time.

Trading at around $14,500 right before the launch, Bitcoin shot up to $15,700 within seconds before dropping down to $14,700 – all within a minute of the CBOE launch.

Since then, the price seems to have stabilized around $15,000, but is experiencing major hundred-dollar swings every second.

News of Bitcoin futures contracts launch by Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and CBOE gave the cryptocurrency a major push last month, taking it all the way from $10,000 to $18,000.

However, there is a lot of uncertainty around the impact of futures contracts on Bitcoin, since futures are a cash-settled market, and traders do not have to buy or sell the actual cryptocurrency. That being said, there is a chance that some of the institutional money pouring into Bitcoin derivatives could spill over into actual crypto markets as traders try to hedge risk.

Amidst the high volume of trading and massive hype around the launch, the CBOE website also experienced issues due to increased load and they Tweeted the same, confirming that the high-traffic was causing temporary unavailability.

Bitcoin’s volatile price action has also caused slight dips in other cryptocurrencies, and it remains to be seen how Bitcoin continues to behave this week, leading up to CME’s launch on December 18. 

The general sentiment seems to be that it may face a correction as profiteers ‘sell the news’ and traders short it, but given how Bitcoin has been anything but predictable recently, literally anything could happen, with predictions ranging from a crash to $10,000 to a jump over $20,000.