Good morning, crypto enthusiasts.
You may notice something strange about today, namely that no calamity befell markets for having dared to introduce a Bitcoin futures contract. The world is still spinning; the sun still rises in the East.
How can this be? Crypto bears were ringing alarm bells for weeks. “It’s a bubble!” they said. “Just wait for Wall Street to short Bitcoin futures. That’ll bring the whole industry crashing down.”
Not quite, I’m afraid.
The arrival of Bitcoin futures on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) was greeted with optimism, contrary to the doomsday prophecies of crypto bears. Rumors of a “giant short” were either wrong or insufficient to ward off a bullish run.
After a strong 10% push to the upside, trading was halted in accordance with CFE Rule 1302 (i)(ii). This rule is triggered automatically whenever there is excessive volatility.
Once trading resumed, investors pushed the Bitcoin futures price up another 10%, activating the trip wire again.
So far, contracts expiring on January 17 have attracted most of the volume. They are trading at approximately $17,790 with a settlement value of $15,460.
If this is what a “crypto crash” looks like, investors would be grinning from ear to ear during recessions. Perhaps it’s simply time for the bears to apply Occam’s Razor and admit that cryptos have more value than they originally imagined.
Daily Ethereum Chart:
What Effect Are Bitcoin Futures Having on ETH?
The good news about Bitcoin futures had a halo effect, which luckily stretched as far as Ethereum prices. ETH advanced 5.93% against the U.S. dollar, bringing the Ethereum to USD rate to $467.74.
However, the majority of the industry’s enthusiasm was centered around Bitcoin, meaning that the Ethereum to Bitcoin rate depreciated by 13.55%. It was 0.02810410 BTC at the time of writing.
Analyst Take:
We believe that Ethereum is a steal whenever the ETH/BTC ratio is below 0.30 BTC. But for many more reasons than that, we believe ETH is on track to reach our $1,500 Ethereum price forecast in 2018.
Source: Price Confidential
