Bitcoin futures hit top world exchange

Bitcoin futures are to start trading at the world’s biggest exchange, CME Group’s venue, a week after Chicago rival Cboe Global Markets introduced similar derivatives on the volatile cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin futures are to start trading at the world’s biggest exchange, CME Group’s venue, a week after Chicago rival Cboe Global Markets introduced similar derivatives on the volatile cryptocurrency.

CME’s version could make a bigger splash because the company is a much bigger player in futures than Cboe, handling about 55 times more volume during the first nine months of 2017, according to the Futures Industry Association. Cboe has so far traded more than 10,000 contracts representing about $180m (€153m) in bitcoin. Many traders couldn’t access that contract because some brokers didn’t immediately offer them, said Garrett See, chief executive of crypto trading firm DV Chain.