WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Friday announced that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME), the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE), and the Cantor Exchange have pursue a self-certified initial listing of bitcoins.
'Bitcoin, a virtual currency, is a commodity unlike any the Commission has dealt with in the past,' said CFTC Chairman Christopher Giancarlo. 'As a result, we have had extensive discussions with the exchanges regarding the proposed contracts, and CME, CFE and Cantor have agreed to significant enhancements to protect customers and maintain orderly markets.
'In working with the Commission, CME, CFE and Cantor have set an appropriate standard for oversight over these bitcoin contracts given the CFTC's limited statutory ability to oversee the cash market for bitcoin.'
'Market participants should take note that the relatively nascent underlying cash markets and exchanges for bitcoin remain largely unregulated markets over which the CFTC has limited statutory authority. There are concerns about the price volatility and trading practices of participants in these markets. We expect that the futures exchanges, through information sharing agreements, will be monitoring the trading activity on the relevant cash platforms for potential impacts on the futures contracts' price discovery process, including potential market manipulation and market dislocations due to flash rallies and crashes and trading outages,' he added.
CME said its new bitcoin futures contract will be available for trading on December 18.
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