TD Ameritrade, which operates the largest futures operation of any of the online brokerages, is opening up access to Bitcoin futures for it's customers on Monday, December 18th. To be pretty frank, this is HUGE news, in addition to the launch of the CME Futures on Monday. While the overall positive affect that a cash-settled futures market might bring to Bitcoin (and cryptoassets as a whole), this is pretty remarkable.
Here's the latest news from CNBC regarding the move of TD Ameritrade adding BTC Futures - CNBC
The trading of bitcoin futures, off to a slow but respectable start this week at the Cboe, is about to be given a boost by two additional players: TD Ameritrade and the CME.
The TD Ameritrade story is important because it operates the largest futures operation of any online brokerage firm. The firm just announced it will begin allowing trading of bitcoin futures on its futures platform on Monday. That means more retail participation and more liquidity.
Second, the entrance of the CME is significant because it operates a far larger futures business than Cboe. CME is preparing to launch its own bitcoin futures on Sunday. Expect higher volumes and a higher dollar value of trading.
The start of futures trading this week on the Cboe has been widely hailed as a turning point for bitcoin, giving it slightly more respectability but,more importantly, creating some regulation over a part of the market (futures) and improving transparency.
The Cboe futures contract has been modestly successful. Volatility in the bitcoin cash market has not been as high this week as it has been in previous weeks, and the spread between the futures and cash contract has narrowed to a little over 1.5 percent from more than 5 percent earlier in the week.
Here's the bad news: volume in the Cboe contract has been very small. On average, roughly $60 million in notional value has traded each day.
In just the last 24 hours, about a half-million bitcoins alone have changed hands. At $17,000 per bitcoin, that is about $8.5 billion.
Get it? $60 million vs. $8.5 billion.
Next would should certainly be a very interesting one, when you now consider how much new money can potentially come into the cryptocurrency space, that previously hasn't had the access they desired.
Any thoughts/predictions as far as how this will affect the overall price over the coming weeks? December should be an interesting time for Bitcoin that's for sure!
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I truly believe it’s only going to grow! There will be down falls, but bitcoin will build generational wealth! I’m honored to be living in this era of human history!
It gives cryptocurrency more legitimacy and accessibility, can only mean good things. I am officially in the market today. Probably wasn't the best timing but I only see it going over the long haul.
Play the long game! It’s still early in the game!
That is the plan :) Looking it getting into some midcap and small cap altcoins too. Need to diversify. I don't have a lot of money to work with so I need to make what I got work the best it can.