A surge in Bitcoin (BTC) prices today may be in response to increased speculation that an exchange-traded product could finally be approved in the coming weeks. BTC prices are up 7% over the past 24 hours and have surged a whopping 32% over the past week, according to CoinGecko. This bullish price action for BTC only may be a form of front-running by big bag holders in anticipation of a futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. On Thursday, Bloomberg senior analyst Eric Balchunas responded to an exclamation from founder and partner at Morgan …

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has charged 12 New York-based crypto options businesses with allegedly failing to register with the regulatory body. In a Thursday press release, the CFTC outlined that it is charging 14 entities in total, with the 12 crypto-focused firms all on the hook for failing to register as futures commission merchants (FCMs). All of the firms were "allegedly based in New York." The other two companies have allegedly posted misleading information about their National Futures Association (NFA) membership and registration with the CFTC. The listed crypto options providers include relatively unknown names such as Bitfxprofit, …

A filing from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, shows that BlackRock Financial Management has increased the number of its Bitcoin futures contracts since Q1 2021. According to a Tuesday filing with the SEC, the BlackRock Global Allocation Fund included 54 Bitcoin (BTC) futures contracts issued through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange as of July 31. The contracts, which expired on Aug. 27, were worth $10.8 million, appreciating by $369,137. The gains from the Bitcoin futures represent roughly 0.00138% of the BlackRock Global Allocation Fund, or 8.91 BTC at the time of publication. The company holds $9.5 trillion …

Cryptocurrency brokerage firm Genesis Global Capital has announced the completion of a first-of-a-kind trade that will pave the way for new institutional crypto futures products. Genesis has executed the first-ever over-the-counter (OTC) block trade of a Basis Trade at Index Close (BTIC) transaction using Bitcoin futures contracts issued by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The trade was made in collaboration with derivatives market maker Akuna Capital according to a Sunday announcement. This is the first time a BTIC has been used for cryptocurrencies as it is more commonly used in equities markets. This form of trading allows investors to buy …

American multinational investment bank JPMorgan has revealed that institutional investors are starting to shy away from Bitcoin futures in favor of Ether derivatives. In a note to investors on Wednesday, analysts at the Wall Street bank said that Bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) have traded at a discount compared to spot BTC prices during September. As a consequence, Ethereum-based products have grown in popularity as investors make the switch to the world’s second-largest crypto asset. The analysts commented that there has been a “strong divergence in demand,” before adding: “This is a setback for Bitcoin and a …

After 46 consecutive days of trading above $42,000, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) started to show weakness on Sept. 21. Over the last three days, the 13% accumulated loss was enough to erase the hard-earned gains added since Aug. 6. Historicals also show that the previous bearish cycle took 79 days to regain the all-important $42,000 level. Traders' attention turned to the start of the United States Federal Reserve's monetary meeting, where the financial authority is expected to indicate whether it will curtail the $120 billion monthly asset repurchase stimulus program. Curiously, as all this takes place, China's equity markets, …

Bitcoin (BTC) investors seem concerned about the increasing speculation that China’s second-largest property developer, Evergrande Group, will default on its $300 billion in debts. These fears manifest in global equities markets, which saw a 1.5%–3% drop at this morning’s market open. Despite the price move, the BTC outflow (net withdrawals) from exchanges has continued a multi-month trend, particularly on Coinbase Pro. Traders also know that every exchange has a different user profile. For example, liquidations on Bybit tend to be more extreme when compared to FTX, which is known for having more conservative clients. Take, for example, Tuesday’s drop below …

Eurex, a derivatives exchange owned by German stock market operator Deutsche Boerse, has debuted cryptocurrency derivatives trading with ETC Group’s Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded note (ETN) futures product. Eurex officially announced Monday the launch of the Bitcoin ETN Futures contract developed by London-based crypto derivatives issuer ETC Group. “As the first step in our portfolio of crypto derivatives, the offering is the first regulated market in Bitcoin-related derivatives in Europe,” Eurex said. Trusted path to #crypto: today, we launched #Bitcoin ETN #Futures. As the first step in our portfolio of #CryptoDerivatives, the offering is the first regulated market in Bitcoin-related #derivatives …

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is facing an intense period of volatility since moving from a $52,950 top on Sept. 7 to a $42,800 low just two hours later. More recently, the $45,000 support was held for a couple of days despite being heavily tested, and this triggered a $3,400 up- and down-swing on Sept. 13. There’s little doubt that shorts — traders betting on a price decrease — have taken the upper hand since the liquidation of $3.54 billion worth of long (buyers) futures contracts on Sept. 7. MicroStrategy’s Sept. 13 announcement that it added over 5,050 Bitcoin at …

Airdrops have been a fan-favorite in the cryptocurrency ecosystem for years because they offer projects a way to reward early adopters and increase token distribution. The latest project to surprise its community of supporters with retroactive rewards for its newly minted token is dYdX, a non-custodial decentralized derivatives exchange that operates on a layer-two version of the Ethereum network. Data from CoinGecko shows that on its first day of trading live in the markets, DYDX is trading at a price of $10.28 at the time of writing after hitting an intra-day high at $14.24. The number of tokens received by …

Traders were caught flat-footed on Sept. 7 after a sharp collapse in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) saw the digital asset fall below $43,000, and this led to widespread liquidations in derivative markets as more than $3.54 billion was liquidated. Amount of Liquidations in the past 24 hours by exchanges in total $3.54 was liquidated! In the past 24 hours, 330,243 traders were liquidated. The largest single liquidation order happened on @HuobiGlobal #BTC $BTC value $43.7M Data source: @bybt_com pic.twitter.com/hNgctWgCgP — CryptoDiffer (@CryptoDiffer) September 7, 2021 Bullish sentiment had been on the rise coming out of the Labor Day holiday …

Real-world adoption and brand awareness are one of the best ways for a blockchain project to increase its value and attract new users to its ecosystem. One project that has seen massive growth throughout 2021 thanks to its increasing public exposure and exciting protocol launches and partnerships is FTX, a crypto derivatives trading platform founded by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low near $50 on Tuesday, the price of FTT catapulted 42% to a new all-time high of $66.50 on Wednesday as its 24-hour trading volume increased by …