Glance through CBOE XBT (bitcoin) futures on eve of expiry

There have been numerous analysts who debate that the bears have tormented cryptocurrency market throughout 2018, people like, John McAfee attributed Bitcoin’s price breakdown on “artificial” pressures; while others claim that this decline is nothing more than a maturation, which is a normal part of the lifecycle of any asset-class.

Bitcoin futures were made available during late 2017 by CME, such instruments have been available for trading on the CBOE Futures Exchange, LLC (CFE) as well. The trading in CBOE bitcoin futures have been unveiled by CFE under the ticker symbol "XBT" (contract specifications fact sheet.) This facilitates numerous benefits to the traders, such as, efficient price discovery, deep liquidity. transparency, and centralized clearing. XBTfutures provides a centralized marketplace for participants to trade based on their view of bitcoin prices, gain exposure to bitcoin prices or hedge their existing bitcoin positions.

XBT futures are cash-settled contracts based on the Gemini's auction price for bitcoin, denominated in U.S. dollars. Gemini Trust Company, LLC (Gemini) is a digital asset exchange and custodian founded in 2014 that allows customers to buy, sell, and store digital assets such as bitcoin, and is subject to fiduciary obligations, capital reserve requirements, and banking compliance standards of the New York State Department of Financial Services.

The latest spell of CBOE XBT futures expires on this Wednesday. The nature of futures contracts means they need to be settled on a set, predefined date, based on a contract. All CBOE contracts will have to be traded, or settled, before this date. There is generally a fall in the trading volume of futures around expiration dates, that coincides with a rise in volatility and potential short/long squeezing.

The underlying asset which is Bitcoin attempts to show minor bounce back from the multi-months low of $3,215.20, but as the sellers continued to dominate, the trend goes in narrow range.

Well, bearish trend of BTCUSD has prolonged from the peaks of $7,767 levels to the current $3,356 levels. Bitcoin futures offer an instant, cost-effective method of crypto trade markets. They are standardized contracts to buy or sell a particular asset at a set price, on a set date in the future, in predefined quantity and quality. Those who want to enjoy the Bitcoin’s bear market, can test their luck into these risk-mitigating derivatives instruments on CME and CBOE.

Currency Strength Index: FxWirePro's hourly BTC spot index is flashing -118 (which is bearish), while hourly USD spot index was at 11 (mildly bullish) while articulating (at 09:54 GMT).

For more details on the index, please refer below weblink: http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex