The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) will not add a new Bitcoin (BTC) futures market in March, the firm said in a statement on March 14.
Per the statement, CBOE is re-evaluating how it approaches trading digital assets. CBOE said:
“CFE is not adding a Cboe Bitcoin (USD) (“XBT”) futures contract for trading in March 2019. CFE is assessing its approach with respect to how it plans to continue to offer digital asset derivatives for trading. While it considers its next steps, CFE does not currently intend to list additional XBT futures contracts for trading.”
The currently listed futures, XBTM19, will expire in June. CBOE notes that all currently listed futures are still available for trading.
In December 2017, CBOE launched Bitcoin futures trading, followed closely by its competitor, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
Futures contracts give investors exposure to an underlying asset — in this case Bitcoin — without the need to actually own any. Instead, investors buy contracts that track the underlying price of the asset and speculate on whether the contract price will increase or decrease by its expiration date. In the case of the CBOE Bitcoin futures market, the difference is then settled in U.S. dollars.
Earlier this week, a report from Bloomberg stated that the Bitcoin price could be headed for another large selloff. Analysts said that key technical indicators such as the Moving Average Convergence Divergence had been moving downward since mid-February. Bloomberg analyst Mike McGlone said:
“The entire industry is ripe to resume a path to lower prices. Conditions are akin to November [2018], just prior to the collapse...”