CME, an American derivatives exchange, announced the debut of Bitcoin (BTC) futures event contracts on March 13.
The exchange, which is fully regulated and has passed administrative review, will now support cash-settled, daily expiring contracts related to bitcoin futures, providing investors with a “lower-cost method to trade their opinions on the up or down price movements of bitcoin.” CME Group’s global head of stock and FX products, Tim McCourt, remarked:
“Our new event contracts on Bitcoin futures provide a limited-risk, highly transparent way for a wide range of investors to access the bitcoin market via a fully regulated exchange. These cash-settled, daily expiring contracts will further complement our existing suite which have traded more than 550,000 contracts to-date.”
On March 10, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected an application submitted by asset management company VanEck for a spot in the Bitcoin trust.
Every application for a spot BTC trust that has been submitted to the SEC over the last six years has been denied, bringing the total number of denials close to twenty.
Grayscale has released a transcript that is linked to its ongoing complaint with the SEC regarding the refusal of its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to be transformed into an exchange-traded fund a few days earlier. The complaint is regarding the refusal of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust to be transformed into an exchange-traded fund.
The following are some of the comments that the judge, Neomi Rao, is said to have made, according to the transcript:
“Because it seems to me that these things, I mean, you know, one is just essentially a derivative of the other. They move together 99.9% of the time. So where’s the gap in the Commission’s view?”
GBTC is now trading at a discount to the net asset value of 38.19%, up from a record low of 50%. The company’s dispute with the SEC is continuing.