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Cboe Isn’t Listing Any New Bitcoin Futures Contracts

Cboe Isn’t Listing Any New Bitcoin Futures Contracts

(Bloomberg) -- Wall Street’s love affair with Bitcoin appears to be souring.

Cboe Global Markets Inc., the first mainstream exchange to let people buy and sell Bitcoin futures, said in a web posting that it’s reviewing its approach to cryptocurrency derivatives and doesn’t currently plan to list more contracts. It offers ones that expire in April, May and June.

The December 2017 launch of the futures on a regulated exchange was seen at the time as a watershed for Bitcoin, whose surge that year captivated everyone from mom-and-pop speculators to Wall Street trading firms. The Cboe contracts, soon followed by similar offerings from CME Group Inc., were seen as a way it make it easier for mainstream investors to bet on the cryptocurrency’s rise or fall.

Cboe Isn’t Listing Any New Bitcoin Futures Contracts

Anyone buying the contract back in December 2017 was getting in at the peak of the crypto bubble. Around that time, Bitcoin surged to an all-time high of around $20,000 before beginning a dramatic decline that saw the original cryptocurrency plunge 74 percent in 2018. The digital alternative to money traded at about $3,882 on Friday.

Suzanne Cosgrove, a spokeswoman for Cboe, reiterated the comments listed on the website.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Baker in Chicago at nbaker7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Dave Liedtka, Andrew Dunn

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