British Hedge Fund, Man Group, Interested in Bitcoin if CME Launches Futures

“CME Group is the natural home for this new vehicle that will provide investors with transparency, price discovery and risk transfer capabilities”

After the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) announced its upcoming launch of Bitcoin futures, it seems that investment firms are taking note, as was expressed by the British firm, Man Group.

Man Group CEO, Luke Ellis, told Reuters that digital currencies could become part of their portfolio if CME launches Bitcoin futures:

“Conceptually digital currencies are an interesting thing. It’s not part of our investment universe today – it could be. If there is a CME future on bitcoin, it would be.”

It appears that Luke Ellis may not be very informed about CME’s progress, because earlier today, CME CEO, Terry Duffy, revealed that they will list Bitcoin futures by the second week of December:

"I think sometime in the second week of December you'll see our contract out for listing."

When the initial announcement was made, Bitcoin price surged, breaking records, as Terry Duffy said, “CME Group is the natural home for this new vehicle that will provide investors with transparency, price discovery and risk transfer capabilities”.

Future contracts are not new, and Bitcoin futures work the same way, allowing users to speculate on the cryptocurrency’s price, without having to deal with the hassle of buying, selling and storing it.

Additionally, CME’s future contracts are going to be settled in cash, which opens doors for a larger investor-base, which was previously reluctant to actually trade Bitcoin due to the associated hurdles, such as interacting with multiple exchanges and trying to convert crypto into fiat money.

Essentially, a future contract requires a user to either go long, or short – which means they either agree to buy the asset in question or sell it at a certain price, at a certain time. An example can be someone buying a contract to purchase Bitcoin at $7,000 a month later – if at that time, Bitcoin’s price is at $7500, the person makes a $500 profit.

Not only do future contracts promote more investments, they also give validation to digital currencies, something that was conceded by Man Group’s CEO as well:

“There is a big difference between a digital currency and a traditional currency...Traditional ones are supported by governments who have armies and tax men that can make people follow their rules, and digital ones don’t. But that doesn’t invalidate digital currencies at all.”

Earlier, we also reported how the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) was encouraged by CME’s announcement as well, with their President and COO, Chris Concannon, saying:

“It's not suggesting what cryptocurrency is going to be the winner and the loser. But overall, the cryptocurrency space is the space that I think we believe in and certainly our competitor across town believes in as well. And I'm just encouraged by that validation.”