It's a big day for Bitcoin!
Not only is this it's 9th birthday - it also set a new all time high record, briefly going over $6400 and hovering around $6350 at the time of this article's publishing.
The reason behind the rise in price is the announcement that CME Group said it would launch bitcoin futures before the end of 2017.
CME is an American financial market company operating the world's largest options and futures exchange, and signals yet another move from Wall Street into the cryptocurrency space.
The idea of futures may be new to some in the crypto scene, NerdWallet explains it like this:
An airline company may want to hedge its bets against an unexpected increase in jet fuel prices. Its traders will therefore seek to enter into a futures contract to lock in a purchase price closer to today’s prices for jet fuel. So they may buy a futures contract agreeing to buy 1 million gallons of JP-8 fuel, taking delivery 90 days in the future, at a price of 3 dollars per gallon.
Someone else naturally wants to ensure they have a steady market for fuel. They also want to protect themselves against an unexpected decline in fuel prices, so they will gladly enter into either a futures contract.
In this example, both parties are hedgers, rather than speculators. They are turning to the futures market as a way to manage their exposure to risk, rather than make money off of the deal directly.
These contracts aren’t just bought and sold over jet fuel, but over almost any asset that’s commonly traded.
Now, the asset will be Bitcoin.
Bitcoin also celebrated it's 9th birthday today, which is worth giving some deeper thought. Often cryptocurrency is talked about as if it's some untested, brand new technology. It's not.
Just months younger than the first iPhone, and one year away from being a decade old, perhaps it's time for people to accept that it's here to stay. I can't think of any other piece of 9 year old tech i'd still call "new".
Today's news seems to be a sign of exactly that, as the mainstream moving into the crypto market continues.
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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk
