What you need to know about bitcoin futures on the 13th hour of trading

In late November, the Chicago Board options exchange (CBOE) announced plans to launch futures on bitcoin. 4 December it became known the exact date of the first auction. And this Sunday, at 18.00 est, the exchange has started trading.

A few weeks before starting the discussion of how new investment will affect the existing markets and the entire ecosystem. Among the prophecies is the fall of bitcoin and other risks associated with volatility and nepokretnosti cryptocurrencies. However, from 4 December the price of bitcoin rose from $11,330 to $18,180 for a few days, korrektiruete in the following days, but not falling below $13,360.

With regard to the conditions of the futures trading, they are as follows:

Futures are traded under the Ticker XBT.

The size of the contracts is equal to 1 bitcoin, bitcoin price iterates in dollars at the rate of exchange Gemini.

The minimum tick for "directional" trading (long and short positions) — $10 for a bitcoin, and for the spread trading at $0.01 per bitcoin.

Currently, there are no restrictions on price, but there may be timeouts during trading sessions. The CBOE announced that trading will be suspended for 2 minutes, if quotations of a contract will change by 10% in either direction from the closing price of the previous day. Bidding will be halted for 5 minutes if the price of futures will rise or fall by 20%. That is, in periods of the greatest volatility bitcoin futures can be suspended.

According to the rules of the CBOE, individual investors cannot own or control more than 5,000 contracts XBT. Now the fee is $1 per contract, but later in the same month, the exchange will waive the fees. However, to buy XBT contracts of individuals and organizations will have to contact the brokers and get their Commission. Today not many financial institutes are willing to sell futures. Of the largest — Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, but they offer futures to a limited number of customers.

According to Japanese journalist Yuji Nakamura, trades bitcoin futures raised $401,600 in the first 20 minutes:

View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter

Yuji Nakamura
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@ynakamura56
CBOE bitcoin futures pretty quiet so far. Just tiny little lots traded through the retail brokers I guess. Only $401,600 trading in the first 20 minutes
2:31 - 11 Dec. 2017
12 replies 12 Retweets 50 50 106 106 Likes
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Within a few hours, the futures price soared more than 20%, and the contract XBT/F8 was trading at $18,210.

Shortly after the start of trading the exchange has confirmed the failures of the website:

Cboe
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@CBOE
Due to heavy traffic on our website, visitors to http://www.cboe.com may find that it is performing slower than usual and may at times be temporarily unavailable. All trading systems are operating normally.
2:33 - 11 Dec. 2017
241 1 reply 777 777 Retweets 1 223 1 223 Likes
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Due to high traffic to our web site visitors cboe.com can detect that the site is running slower than usual, or is temporarily unavailable. All trading systems are functioning normally.

Exchange reported in his Twitter about the trades:

View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter

Cboe
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@CBOE
Cboe #BitcoinFutures $XBT trades over 800 contracts in the first 2 hours post launch #bitcoin @GeminiDotCom http://bit.ly/2yXI0iE ]
4:21 - 11 Dec. 2017
57 57 replies 637 637 Retweets 954 954 Likes
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Cboe #BitcoinFutures $XBT sold more than 800 contracts in the first 2 hours after launch.

Netizens are also discussing the prospects of futures and ongoing success:

13H

Cboe
✔
@CBOE
Cboe #BitcoinFutures $XBT trades over 800 contracts in the first 2 hours post launch #bitcoin @GeminiDotCom http://bit.ly/2yXI0iE ] pic.twitter.com/oCCxRZcPnC

Adam grill
@Superlinksworld
Great job @CBOE
Bitcoin is the future of money
Investor will love it as whole world is loving this technology : )
4:24 - 11 Dec. 2017
1 1 reply 1 Retweet 1 9 9 Likes
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Great job. Bitcoin is the future of money. Investors will love it as the whole world loves this technology.

Someone even compared the price chart futures with Christmas lights:

13H

Cboe
✔
@CBOE
Cboe #BitcoinFutures $XBT trades over 800 contracts in the first 2 hours post launch #bitcoin @GeminiDotCom http://bit.ly/2yXI0iE ] pic.twitter.com/oCCxRZcPnC

Roberto (rz698)
@robjarawan
@sunnydecree like pretty Christmas lights... dasshing thru the snooow lalalallalalaaaaa pic.twitter.com/y8wws1hOvp
5:37 - 11 Dec. 2017
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1 1 answer 9 Retweets 9 Likes
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How beautiful the Christmas lights... flying through the snow* [*a quote from Jingle Bells]

Further predictions concern the coexistence of the market for bitcoin futures and spot markets. Some believe that a new kind of trading will reduce the volatility of bitcoin.