Lucy Jane 
Hong Kong is crypto’s “center of gravity” after US crackdown
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.