Wednesday, December 6, 2017

HOT Banksters Attempting to Halt the Launch of Bitcoin Futures


The world’s largest banks are pushing back on the introduction of bitcoin futures, raising concerns with US regulators that the financial system is ill-prepared for the launch of the contracts as the value of the volatile cryptocurrency has soared, reports The Financial Times.

According to the paper, the planned launch in the next 10 days of futures contracts by the Chicago exchanges CME Group and CBOE Global Markets, given a green light from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission last week, has prompted a backlash among the major brokers who backstop trading across the industry.

The Futures Industry Association, the main futures industry lobby group, plans to send a letter to the CFTC that will be published on Thursday.

In a draft seen by the FT, the FIA writes that the rapid introduction of bitcoin futures “did not allow for proper public transparency and input”.

The CME and CBOE agreed to operate under a self-certified regime for their upcoming contracts, meaning regulators had minimal time to review them formally.

Using it for “these novel products does not align with the potential risks that underlie their trading and should be reviewed”, the draft reads.

“It is also our understanding that not all risk committees of the relevant exchanges were consulted before the certification to launch these products,” the letter added.

-RW

(ht Felix Bronstein)

1 comment:

  1. The letter FIA sent to CFTC

    https://fia.org/articles/open-letter-cftc-chairman-giancarlo-regarding-listing-cryptocurrency-derivatives

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