Bitcoin (BTC) struggled to maintain bullish momentum on Jan. 30 as the countdown to the monthly close kept the market nervous. BTC price sees flash dip below $23,000 Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD coming off its latest highs at just below $24,000 on the day. These, while Bitcoin’s best performance for nearly six months, encountered problems with staying power as the week began, with pre-Wall Street trading seeing a brief trip below $23,000. At the time of writing, Bitcoin traded at around $23,250 as United States equities limped into the final few days of January. Among …

Derivatives marketplace CME Group is planning to launch reference rates and real-time indices for three metaverse crypto assets, allowing investors to track pricing data more reliably using a methodology commonly used in traditional finance. Beginning Jan. 30, CME Group and CF Benchmarks will launch reference rates for Axie Infinity (AXS), Chiliz (CHZ) and Decentraland (MANA), the company announced on Jan. 5. The reference rates and indices are not tradeable products but instead can be used by investors to “price sector-specific portfolios, develop structured products … And manage price risk around various Metaverse-based projects,” said Giovanni Vicioso, CME Group’s head of …

Futures and options let traders put down only a tiny portion of a trade’s value and bet that prices will go up or down to a certain point within a certain period. It can make traders' profits bigger because they can borrow more money to add to their positions, but it can also boost their losses much if the market moves against them. Even though the market for crypto derivatives is growing, the instruments and infrastructure that support it are not as developed as those in traditional financial markets. Next year will be the year that crypto derivatives reach a …

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Bitcoin (BTC) futures have been trading below Bitcoin’s spot price on regular exchanges since Nov. 9, a situation that is technically referred to as backwardation. While it does point to a bearish market structure, there are multiple factors that can cause momentary distortions. Typically, these CME fixed-month contracts trade at a slight premium, indicating that sellers are requesting more money to withhold settlement for longer. As a result, futures should trade at a 0.5% to 2% premium in healthy markets, a situation known as contango. However, a prominent futures contract seller will cause a momentary …

A sequence of macro warnings coming out of the Goldman Sachs camp puts Bitcoin (BTC) at a risk of crashing to $12,000. Bitcoin in "bottom phase?" A team of Goldman Sachs economists led by Jan Hatzius raised their prediction for the speed of Federal Reserve benchmark rate hikes. They noted that the U.S. central bank would increase rates by 0.75% in September and 0.5% in November, up from their previous forecast of 0.5% and 0.25%, respectively. Fed's rate-hike path has played a key role in determining Bitcoin's price trends in 2022. The period of higher lending rates — from near …

Derivatives marketplace Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group has launched trading for Bitcoin euro and Ether euro futures contracts. In a Monday announcement, CME Group said that it launched contracts for euro-denominated Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) futures sized at 5 BTC and 50 ETH per contract. Both contracts will be listed on CME, cash-settled, and based on the CME CF Bitcoin-Euro Reference Rate and CME CF Ether-Euro Reference Rate, respectively. "Our new Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures will provide institutional clients, both within and outside the U.S., with more precise and regulated tools to trade and hedge exposure to the …

Major derivatives marketplace Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group intends to launch options trading for its Ether futures products. In a Thursday announcement, the CME Group said that subject to regulatory review, it plans to launch options contracts for its Ether (ETH) futures, sized at 50 ETH per contract. The futures options, expected to start trading on Sept. 12, will follow the firm launching micro-sized Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether options in March 2022, BTC options trading products in January 2020, and a BTC futures contract in December 2017. CME Group’s global head of equity and FX products Tim McCourt cited the Ethereum …

Most Bitcoin (BTC) traders would rather see a sharp price correction and a subsequent recovery than agonize for multiple months below $24,000. However, BTC has been doing the opposite since June 14 and its most recent struggle is the asset’s failure to break above the $22,000 resistance. For this reason, most traders are holding back their bullish expectations until BTC posts a daily close above $24,000. Events outside of the crypto market are the primary factor impacting investors' perspectives on digital assets and on July 14, United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that inflation is "unacceptably high" and she …

The Bitcoin (BTC) price chart from the past couple of months reflects nothing more than a bearish outlook and it’s no secret that the cryptocurrency has consistently made lower lows since breaching $48,000 in late March. Curiously, the difference in support levels has been getting wider as the correction continues to drain investor confidence and risk appetite. For example, the latest $19,000 baseline is almost $10,000 away from the previous support. So if the same movement is bound to happen, the next logical price level would be $8,000. Traders are afraid of regulation and contagion On July 11, the Financial …

Bitcoin (BTC) price initially bounced from its recent low at $29,000 but the overall market sentiment after a 25% price drop in five days is still largely negative. Currently, the crypto "Fear and Greed Index," which uses volatility, volume, social metrics, Bitcoin dominance and Google trends data, has plunged to its lowest level since March 2020 and at the moment, there appears to be little protecting the market against further downside. Regulation continues to weigh down the markets Regulation is still the main threat weighing on markets and it's clear that investors are taking a risk-off approach to high volatility …

Kristin Johnson, one of five commissioners currently serving at the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, has announced that a CME Group executive director with experience in crypto will be joining her staff. In a Thursday announcement, Johnson said Bruce Fekrat will be her chief counsel at the CFTC starting on June 1. Fekrat worked as an executive director and associate general counsel at the CME Group for more than eight years, where he was lead regulatory counsel for issues including digital assets. During his time at the derivatives marketplace, he regulated cryptocurrency reference rates and helped in …

Major derivatives marketplace Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group will launch options trading for its micro Bitcoin and Ether futures products. In a Tuesday announcement, the CME Group said that, subject to regulatory review, it plans to launch options contracts for its existing micro Bitcoin (BTC) futures and micro Ether (ETH) futures that will be 10% the size of the respective tokens. The futures options, expected to start trading on March 28, will come more than two years after the firm launched a BTC options trading product in January 2020 and more than four years since the group launched the first Bitcoin …