Bitcoin surges past $24,000 on CME launch of BTC event contracts

On Mar. 13, American derivatives marketplace CME announced the launch of Bitcoin ( $64,120.00 ) (BTC) futures event contracts. The exchange, which is fully regulated and has cleared administrative review, will henceforth facilitate cash-settled, daily expiring contracts tied to Bitcoin ( $64,120.00 ) futures with a “lower-cost way for investors to trade their views on the up or down price moves of bitcoin.” Tim McCourt, global head of equity and FX products at CME Group, commented:

Our new event contracts on Bitcoin ( $64,120.00 ) futures provide a limited-risk, highly transparent way for a wide range of investors to access the Bitcoin ( $64,120.00 ) market via a fully regulated exchange. These cash-settled, daily expiring contracts will further complement our existing suite  which have traded more than 550,000 contracts to-date.

On Mar. 10, Cointelegraph reported that asset manager VanEck’s spot Bitcoin ( $64,120.00 ) trust application was denied by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The commissioners noted that the SEC had denied every application for a spot Bitcoin ( $64,120.00 ) trust that has been filed, amounting to almost 20 over the last six years.

Days prior, digital currency management firm Grayscale published a transcript related to its ongoing lawsuit with the SEC over the denial of its Grayscale Bitcoin ( $64,120.00 ) Trust (GBTC) to be converted into an exchange-traded fund. According to the transcript, judge Neomi Rao commented:

“Because it seems to me that these things, I mean, you know, one is just essentially a derivative of the other. They move together 99.9% of the time. So where’s the gap in the Commission’s view?”

Currently, GBTC is trading at a discount of 38.19% to net asset value, up from a historic low of 50%. The firm’s litigation with the SEC is ongoing.