Back in August, we reported on the mood-killing bitcoin calculator. If you invested a mere $100 seven years ago, you could conceivably be sitting on millions today. For you non-investors — those who lie on the spectrum between “What’s a bitcoin?” to “It’s all a crock” — there’s about to be a new way to cash in on the cryptocurrency: the Nasdaq.
On Wednesday, the stock exchange revealed their interest in offering bitcoin futures, with a prospective launch date coming in the second quarter of 2018, according to CNBC.
Now, looking at the recent fluctuations in bitcoin’s valuation, trading in these futures would not be for the faint of heart. After hitting an all-time high of $11,395 per bitcoin on Wednesday, the value fell to $9,000 in less than 24 hours. At the time of this publication, it had since recovered.
While the Nasdaq is the most prominent stock exchange to announce potential bitcoin offerings, CME Group, Inc. and Cboe Global Markets, Inc. have also “announced plans to offer cryptocurrency derivatives,” writes Bloomberg Technology. The publication also notes that Nasdaq is small potatoes in the realm of futures, but its overall clout no doubt signals a move towards mainstream acceptance of this particular digital currency.
On the other hand (and on the other side of the pond), Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau recently laid the smackdown on bitcoin. Via Reuters: “We need to be clear: bitcoin is in no way a currency, or even a cryptocurrency … It is a speculative asset. Its value and extreme volatility have no economic basis, and they are nobody’s responsibility.”
Well, looks like they’re our responsibility now. This Friday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved bitcoin.
This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.
