Bitcoin begins futures trading after bloody weekend

AFTER a weekend of violent price swings, bitcoin investors on Monday were bracing for the volatile cryptocurrency to begin trading on a major US exchange for the first time.

At 6pm New York time — 10am Sydney time — the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) began trading in bitcoin futures, causing the price to spike by more than 8 per cent in the space of seven minutes, from $US14,509 to $US15,732, according to research site CoinDesk.

But within minutes, the CBOE website appeared to have crashed under the load.