Nasdaq is Still Planning to Launch Bitcoin (BTC) Futures, Despite Crypto Prices Plummeting

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Nasdaq (New York City-based National Association Securities
Dealers Automated Quotations), the world’s second largest
stock exchange, is reportedly moving forward with its plans to
list bitcoin (BTC ) futures. This, according to two sources who are familiar with Nasdaq’s internal operations. As CryptoGlobe reported in September,

Nasdaq appeared to laying the groundwork for crypto-related
projects - as it had made a $190 million “all cash recommended
public offer” on September 14th to acquire, Cinnober (a crypto-
friendly global provider of financial technology to large
exchange operators). It appears that Nasdaq, which has a market capitalization of $10 trillion, believes digital currency prices might recover - even though over $700 billion has been wiped off of the cryptoasset market since December of 2017 and early 2018 (when crypto prices reached all-time highs).

CME, Cboe Were The First To Introduce BTC Futures

At present, Nasdaq is working closely with the US Commodity
Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the regulatory authority on
swaps (or futures contracts), in order to make sure its BTC
futures comply with regulatory guidelines.

As CryptoGlobe covered , the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE),
which owns the world’s largest stock exchange, NYSE, is
planning to offer BTC futures contracts in early 2019 through its
crypto-focused subsidiary, Bakkt.

In December of 2017, the CME Group and Cboe Global Markets
introduced bitcoin (BTC) futures for the very first time. Both the
CME and Cboe used a basic self-certification process to issue
BTC futures contracts - at the time when the digital currency
market was nearing the end of its historic bull run.

Not Meeting Expectations

Although many analysts were expecting that BTC futures would
be the start of a large number of institutional investors entering
the crypto asset markets, they have so far failed to meet
expectations. Bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, had been
trading at an all-time high of nearly $20,000 (in Dec 2017),
however, its price has dropped considerably since then - as it’s
currently trading below $4,000 mark - according to CryptoCompare data.

As CryptoGlobe reported in late October, both the CME and Cboe
traded an average of only 9,000 contracts per day during the
third quarter of 2018 - which is just a tiny fraction of what’s
currently traded on the traditional futures markets. Commenting
on the relatively low trading activity, Craig Pirrong, a finance
professor at the University of Houston, had said:

"It has not been what you would call a roaring success...Institutional players have stayed on the Bitcoin sidelines, and as long as they are, the futures contracts are likely not to generate substantial amounts of volume."

Source : https://www.cryptoglobe.com