CBOE is reportedly putting on “hold” its Bitcoin Futures market. The exchange announced that it will not be adding a new bitcoin futures offering in March. The cited reason is that CBOE will need to review the process and the product itself.
The news was actually made by CBOE Futures Exchange or CFE. The unit of CBOE announced to traders”
CFE is not adding a Cboe Bitcoin (USD) (“XBT”) futures contract for trading in March 2019. CFE is assessing its approach with respect to how it plans to continue to offer digital asset derivatives for trading. While it considers its next steps, CFE does not currently intend to list additional XBT futures contracts for trading. Currently listed XBT futures contracts remain available for trading.
While there will be no addition of bitcoin futures until further notice, the already listed ones will remain on the exchange. The last contract called XBTM19 will expire this summer, in June 2019.
Several different sources point to different reasons as to why CBOE is discontinuing its bitcoin futures offering to traders.
One reason may be the low volatility of BTC/USD, which hit its lowest level since November, as reported by Forbes. Low volatility is actually a not very “exciting” thing for traders.
Another possible explanation is simply the declining interest and therefore price of Bitcoin. The value of the “people’s currency” fell to historically low levels, and there is no sign that the trend will revert. Institutional investors are particularly “discouraged” from trading in such cases.