Mounting volatility of Bitcoin price but bears resume as BTC CME futures head for its last expiry of 2018

As the cryptocurrency derivatives market swells, so do the requirements of traders. While there are umpteen number of cryptocurrency exchanges testing their luck in this space, even then there is a shortage of platforms for trading cryptocurrency derivatives.

Bitcoin’s price surge in 2017 indeed strikes a chord in the cryptocurrency avenue. While the prices have since tumbled, 2018 has been a year which experienced a lot in this space. There are now thousands of cryptocurrencies, hundreds of projects, and numerous cryptocurrency trading platforms. Yet, the industry is still in its nascent stage and there is a long way ahead.

Please also be noted that we reiterate the coming Friday would be the latest and the last spell of expiry of CME XBT futures contracts of 2018. To wrap-up tough times of 2018, the nature of futures contracts implies that they need to be settled on a set, predefined date, based on a contract. 

While the current price still remained well above $3,800 levels amid today’s weakness as we approach CME BTC futures expiry (which is on this Friday) but BTC futures price is ticking at $3,565 levels, whereas BTC spot price is at $3,742 level.

Please also be noted that most importantly, BTC has been oscillating between 4400 – 3200 levels on a medium-term perspective, and the average price resides just tad below $3,800, over the 24-hour cycle, it has essentially been remained intact for visionaries of long-term bullish targets, the leading cryptocurrency has been trading in the $3,735-$3,640 range on predominant exchanges such as, Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Gemini etc. More than $100 higher is noticeable, that usually realizes huge premiums for BTCUSD.

Key takeaways to be keenly observed during expiry: CME BTCUSD contracts of Dec’2018 tenors would be traded on or before this expiry period or settled. 

Usually, there would be a slight drop in the trading volumes of futures as it nears expiration, that couples with the volatility factor in the BTC spot market increases every time contract heads towards its expiry date owing to a potential short/long squeezing.

CME BTC futures have emerged as a leader along with CBOE in BTC futures, with sizable and growing USD volume through Q3/Q4 2018. 

Currency Strength Index: FxWirePro's hourly BTC spot index is flashing at -63 (which is bearish), while hourly USD spot index was at 37 (mildly bullish) at 08:51 GMT. 

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