Man Group, the first fund that could bet on bitcoin

The British giant has said it is ready to invest in derivatives that the Chicago Stock Exchange will launch in December.

After the merchant banks and stock exchange operators, bitcoin seduces ... investment funds! The British Man Group, which manages nearly 100 billion dollars (84.4 billion euros) in assets, will integrate the largest cryptocurrency market to its management strategy. A choice that should further strengthen the place of bitcoin, which has gone from $ 1,000 to over $ 6,000 in less than a year.

It was the CEO of the fund itself who announced it at the World Investment Summit, organized by Reuters in London on Tuesday. Asked about the burning issue of 2.0 currencies, Luke Ellis said Man Group was very interested in future bitcoin contracts that the Chicago Stock Exchange is due to launch in December. "If the CME launches its options on bitcoin, we will position ourselves," he confirmed.

Contracts as early as December

The Chicago Stock Exchange announced at the end of October the launch of several contracts. With these products, CME is positioning itself on the 2.0 currency niche, now considered by some investors, such as Goldman Sachs or Man Group, as little more than a mere speculation.
Earlier this week, CME CEO Terry Duffy confirmed on CNBC that the contracts would be launched in December, specifically in the second week. "What I want to do is mentoring and proposing to invest in bitcoin to better spread the risk," he explained. Among the tools envisaged for these new assets, the CME has in particular planned a circuit breaker system in case of excessive volatility, with levels at 7%, 13% and 20%, as for the flagship S & P 500 index.
A more liquid market

These movements of banks and investment funds owe nothing to chance. They correspond to the evolution of the bitcoin market, which exploded in 2017. In January, the market was only 15 billion dollars (12.6 billion euros) and proved very illiquid, especially for banks and funds that manage hundreds of billions of dollars.

Since January, the global capitalization of bitcoin has exceeded 100 billion dollars (84.4 billion euros). On a daily basis, it trades an average of $ 4 billion (€ 3.4 billion) in bitcoin transactions, or more than 25% of the January 2017 total capitalization.

As CoinDesk points out, bitcoin has even become as liquid as the Apple title, the world's largest capitalization, among the world's most sought-after assets.