Bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) jumped to an all-time high above $6,400 on the BitStamp exchange after the world’s largest derivatives exchange operator CME Group Inc (NASDAQ: CME) announced plans to launch a futures contract for Bitcoin later this year, Reuters reported.
According to CME, the contracts will be “cash settled, based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) which serves as a once-a-day reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of Bitcoin.”
Additionally, the firm’s Bitcoin futures will follow the same guidelines as CME’s traditional marketplaces.
“Given increasing client interest in the evolving cryptocurrency markets, we have decided to introduce a Bitcoin futures contract,” explained Terry Duffy, CME Group’s CEO, and Chairman. “As the world’s largest regulated FX marketplace, CME Group is the natural home for this new vehicle that will provide investors with transparency, price discovery and risk transfer capabilities,” he added.
The decision comes only a month after CME Group President Bryan Durkin dismissed the idea, saying on Bloomberg Television that, “I really don’t see us going forward with a futures contract in the very near future.”