Topic: Bitcoin Futures (Read 128 times)

So now two large non-crypto exchanges - the CBOE and the CME - are planning to offer bitcoin futures in the next few months. CME says by end of this year, CBOE says early 2018.

These would seem to be Bitcoin's first forays into traditional investment platforms. So this could be huge, and the start of Bitcoin's price skyrocketing.

Now I kind of understand futures contracts. Two parties agree to make a contract the exchange bitcoin at a set future date for a certain price. And in the meantime while the contracts are open I think you can even trade those contracts with other people to manage risk if you think things are not looking good for your contract. Something like that...

First question:
Does futures actually give these investors direct exposure to Bitcoin? Will they actually be buying and holding these bitcoin, or are they just gambling on the price of the bitcoin without actually owning it? I assume they are actually getting exposure to the underlying asset (bitcoin) and therefore these future will mean people directly adding to the demand and therefore price to the moon. Can anyone confirm this for me?

Second question:
What do you think this is gonna do to the price of Bitcoin? Within 5 months two major traditional financial exchanges will have Bitcoin futures contracts. Could this send BTC to like $20k in the next 6 months? Higher? Lower? Won't have much effect? What do you think?