February 23, 2019

Bitcoin [BTC] Futures by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group reaches an all-time high in Q1 of 2019

Citing an internal e-mail, The Block reported that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group [CME Group] opened the doors for cryptocurrency investments and institutional investors in 2019 via its bitcoin Futures.

bitcoin Futures is a contract that will let customers bet on the future price of bitcoin. CME Group first launched BTC futures in 2017 and according to the internal letter, the futures contract is taking off without a hitch. The internal e-mail read,

“Yesterday (Feb 19th) set a new record with 18,338 contracts traded, this is equivalent to 91,690 bitcoin or $360MN… Q1 2019 is off to a strong start, ADV has improved to 4,630 contracts (23,150 equivalent bitcoin), up ~13% from Q4 2018 while [open interest] rose to 4,076 contracts, an improvement of 21.5% over Q4 2018.”

In addition to the above, the CME Group has about 2,100 accounts and about 30 unique firms that have traded the contract. The e-mail stated,

“Institutional interest has gradually risen and the number of LOIHs (Large Open Interest Holders) has been holding steady around 43 holders since November. A LOIH is an entity that holds at least 25 BTC contracts.”

Further, CryptoCompare’s research for January 2019 shows a significant increase in the number of bitcoin Futures contracts traded on CME when compared to its counterparts. The daily volumes increased by 20%, from $66.5M to $79.9M in January.

With the anticipation around the launch of Bakkt building up, it is expected that the prices of cryptocurrencies would shoot up. 2019 started with a rally, contrary to the general bearish trend that overtook the cryptocurrency market in 2018. In fact, the rally pushed the price of BTC to touch major resistance at $4000.

Another bitcoin-related news that could affect the cryptoverse is the possible approval of the bitcoin ETF proposal by the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC].

The post Bitcoin [BTC] Futures by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group reaches an all-time high in Q1 of 2019 appeared first on AMBCrypto.

Published at Sat, 23 Feb 2019 11:03:43 +0000

You might be interested in …

March 17, 2019

Bitcoin Cash Developers Launch Privacy-Preserving Light Client Neutrino

bitcoin Cash Developers Launch Privacy-Preserving Light Client Neutrino The developers behind the bitcoin Cash (BCH) full node Bchd have announced the beta release of the lightweight client Neutrino which is now available for Android phones. […]

May 3, 2019

Berkshire Buying Amazon (AMZN) Stock, Buffet Says He Didn’t Do It

Berkshire Buying Amazon (AMZN) Stock, Buffet Says He Didn’t Do It Berkshire Buying Amazon (AMZN) Stock, Buffet Says He Didn’t Do It ⋆ Crypto New Media Home 2019 May 3 News Berkshire Buying Amazon (AMZN) […]

March 24, 2017

Fed Financial Statements: $6 Billion Drop in Fed Remittances

mises.org / C.Jay Engel / March 24, 2017

As the Fed continues to increase the rate of interest it pays on excess reserves, the Fed’s profits that are left over are slowly going to shrink in size. Since the Fed sends its profits to the US Treasury each year, the US Treasury will be receiving less. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday:

The Federal Reserve sent $91.5 billion in profits to the Treasury Department last year, a $6 billion decline that officials have long expected as a result of rising interest rates.

The Fed’s total net income declined by $7.6 billion, to $92.4 billion, according to the Fed’s audited financial statements released Friday. The decline was primarily the result of higher interest payments it made to banks on the reserves they keep at the central bank.

David Howden has explained this process — and the implications for “Fed independence” — rather nicely:

Each year, the Fed remits to the US Treasury its net income, and thus provides the federal government with an important source of funding.

For the US Treasury, Fed remittances are something of a free lunch. When someone buys a Treasury bond, the government must pay them interest. This applies to the Fed as well, but then at year-end the Fed remits the interest back to the Treasury.