Bitcoin futures (XBT) were first traded over the weekend on the Chicago-based CBOE Global Markets exchange, but their price skyrocketed from an opening of $15,460 on Sunday evening to a high of $18,700 in only a few hours. After surging some 21 percent, the futures fell back slightly, to trade around $17,500. According to Coindesk, CBOE’s website crashed during the bitcoin futures launch, a failure that CBOE attributed to the launch coinciding with a spike in bitcoin’s price index, from $14,509 to $15,732 in a seven-minute span. According to CNBC, 672 January contracts were sold as of 710 p.m. EST Sunday, at a price of $15,800.
According to Coinbase, the price of bitcoin was $16,658.12 as of 1:51 p.m. HK/SIN. The digital currency has seen a 15-fold gain since the start of 2017, despite professional detractors that are skeptical about a bitcoin bubble that may burst at any moment.
Asian Shares Head Higher
After a difficult week last week, Asian stock indexes headed higher on Monday, supported by positive U.S. payrolls data and better than expected trade data out from China on Friday. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.42 percent, South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.21 percent and Australia’s ASX 200 saw a modest 0.07 percent increase on Monday. At the same time, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.41 percent, boosted by optimism about manufacturing growth and positive data for Q4 2017.
All eyes are now on the U.S. Federal Reserve which is the only central bank widely expected to raise interest rates at its policy meeting later this week.