Topic: [2017-12-02] JPMorgan Strategist:Bitcoin Futures Could ‘Elevate Crypto..... (Read 1290 times)

JPMorgan Strategist: Bitcoin Futures Could ‘Elevate Cryptocurrencies Into an Emerging Asset Class’


JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon might consider bitcoin to be a “fraud” that “will not end well,” but one of his top strategists anticipates that the launch of bitcoin futures could turn cryptocurrencies into “an emerging asset class.”

As reported by CNBC, Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, a global markets strategist at JPMorgan, said Friday that the addition of bitcoin futures contracts to regulated trading platforms will lend credibility to cryptocurrency, making it more appealing to both institutional and retail investors.

“The prospective launch of bitcoin futures contracts by established exchanges in particular has the potential to add legitimacy and thus increase the appeal of the cryptocurrency market to both retail and institutional investors,” Panigirtzoglou said in a report.

This prediction is no longer just a mere hypothetical. Following months of anticipation, Chicago derivatives exchange CME revealed Friday that it had received CFTC approval to begin trading bitcoin futures on December 18. In a separate announcement, fellow Chicago trading platform CBOE stated that it had filed a product certification for a bitcoin futures product with the CFTC. Nasdaq Inc. and Cantor are also reportedly planning to launch bitcoin derivatives.

Although the futures will be cash-settled — meaning that no actual bitcoins will change hands during any part of the transaction — several mainstream financial analysts believe that the presence of bitcoin-derived products on regulated exchanges will ultimately reduce the volatility of the underlying markets and help the nascent asset class to mature into a regular financial instrument.

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Barely 3 months after their CEO called bitcoin as a fraud and even threatened his employees of being terminated just for owning one, their global markets strategist is now seeing bitcoin's bright future. Will Jamie Dimon fire him because of this statement or are they benefiting from the current price hype of bitcoin?