A futures market ought to change that. Futures trading mushrooms; professional investors come in to break up the bitcoin bugs’ little game; sanity returns to financial markets. To be sure, a bitcoin derivatives market is likely to become vastly larger and more liquid than the underlying blockchain-based trade—that’s the nature of futures and options. The $376 billion notional value of gold derivatives outstanding at the end of June, for instance, is equivalent to about 10 times the 953 metric tonnes of physical gold purchased in that quarter. And just as a derivatives market is likely to bring in more short-sellers, it could get more longs into the trade, as well.

Source: Mint December 04, 2017 04:30 UTC