Will Bitcoin Futures Help Stabilize Volatility?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Your Money Matters from The Wall Street Journal.
Welcome to Your Money Matters. I'm Anne-Marie Fertoli in New York.
What recent Bitcoin price movement sets the stage for this discussion?
Bitcoin's been in the news a lot lately after recently racing up to $11,000 for the first time on Wednesday, and investors continue to get hooked despite Bitcoin's wild swings.
Which exchanges and regulator approved Bitcoin futures and why does that matter?
Now a federal regulator has given approval to two exchanges in Chicago to launch Bitcoin futures. Joining me now in New York to talk about what this means for the future of the cryptocurrency is Wall Street Journal reporter Alex Osipovich. Alex, Friday's approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission clears the way for these exchanges to launch Bitcoin futures later this month. In your piece for The Wall Street Journal, you write that this could be a huge step for Bitcoin. How so?
Well, there are a couple of things. First of all, the Bitcoin market has historically been pretty marginal. It started out with these kind of anarchist, libertarian, software geek types. And gradually it's become more mainstream.
How could Bitcoin futures let Wall Street firms participate more easily?
But there's a big impediment there. to the ability of big Wall Street banks and hedge funds and asset managers, companies like Hero Price to trade Bitcoin. And that is, it's not traded on a regulated marketplace. If they trade Bitcoin futures, that's by definition on a regulated marketplace, regulated by the CFTC, which just made this announcement. So that's one thing. They will also be able to short Bitcoin. And what that means is basically to place bets that Bitcoin is going to fall in price. And this is pretty significant because you kind of can't do it right now.
What regulatory differences between the CFTC and SEC affect Bitcoin's future?
You can buy Bitcoin, hold on to it and watch its value increase or fall. But it's not very easy to short Bitcoin. If you short Bitcoin, then basically that allows you to hedge against a fall in the price of Bitcoin. And that will make big trading firms a lot more comfortable in the ability to trade Bitcoin.
What conditions did the CFTC require exchanges to meet before approval?
Does this approval signal that the government is starting to warm up to more widespread use of Bitcoin?
I think so. I think that there is a bit of a interesting dynamic between the different financial regulators here. The CFTC has historically been kind of a small and scrappy financial regulator. It has a smaller staff than any of the other financial regulators out there. And the SEC, which is probably better known to most people out there because it regulates the stock market, has been more skeptical of Bitcoin. Earlier this year, it denied a Bitcoin ETF application. After that, Bitcoin fanatics all kind of turn their longing eyes to the CFTC, hoping for some regulatory love. The CFTC has said for the past couple of years that it views Bitcoin as a commodity, meaning that legally, in the eyes of the CFTC, it's similar to crude oil or soybeans or gold.
And this is basically kind of a logical step in the evolution of the CFTC's thinking about Bitcoin. But yeah, broadly, I would say that the government as a whole is maybe warming up a little bit to Bitcoin and different factions of it and different officials within it are friendlier than the others. I think that it's safe to say that at the CFTC, they're relatively pro-Bitcoin.
I'm curious about the conditions Bitcoin had to meet to gain approval from the commission. I understand from your piece that significant changes were made at the regulator's request.
Yeah, yeah, there was some tinkering done. The main thing is that essentially Bitcoin trades in these kind of underlying exchanges, which are all kind of, you know, startup type companies that are only a few years old. And there are places where people who hold bitcoins can get together and buy and sell them and they help figure out what the price is. The futures market kind of sits on top of that. And for CME, for example, to launch its Bitcoin futures, it needed to partner with some underlying exchanges. So they basically figure out what is the price of Bitcoin. And then its futures contract will track that price. The problem is that these underlying Bitcoin exchanges, there's a history of a lot of dubious activity happening on them.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:12
2
What recent Bitcoin price movement sets the stage for this discussion?
0:12–0:23
3
Which exchanges and regulator approved Bitcoin futures and why does that matter?
0:23–1:02
4
How could Bitcoin futures let Wall Street firms participate more easily?
1:02–1:34
5
What regulatory differences between the CFTC and SEC affect Bitcoin's future?
1:34–1:52
6
What conditions did the CFTC require exchanges to meet before approval?
1:52–5:50
7
Can launching Bitcoin futures actually reduce Bitcoin's volatility?
5:50–7:34
8
How might Bitcoin futures influence short-term investor interest and trading behavior?
7:34–8:42
Speakers
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