The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) does not plan to offer other cryptocurrency futures following Bitcoin contracts listing as caution is its main reason not to venture into altcoins, CME Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy told Bloomberg in a recent interview. Regarding Bitcoin, he said it “might have been the most controversial launch of a product”, while also acknowledging it got “the most recognition”.
The oldest and most established cryptocurrency has not been trading for long enough to advocate an expansion into other similar assets, or in Duffy’s words:
“I will not just put products up there to see where they’re going to go”
The CEO even joked he is glad not to be asked for a price prediction, as Bitcoin is much more volatile than the rest of the products on the exchange. He went on to reiterate these contracts are not meant for the average investor. Their margin requirements are rather high, and each contract has a notional value of 5 BTC. In contrast, CME’s main competitor the CBOE has much smaller contracts worth a single Bitcoin each and has even hinted at the possibility of adding altcoin futures.
Crypto volumes are on the rise in the two exchanges. The CME reported a 93% quarter-on-quarter increase in the average daily volumes with a single-day record of 12,878 traded Bitcoin contracts set this Tuesday, when Bitcoin approached the $8,000 mark. However, digital assets still have a long way to go before reaching wide adoption in the investment community. This week may have given us the first “physical” delivery on a Bitcoin contract, but overall the volumes can hardly compare to the average daily volumes of 18.4 million for other futures.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
