CME Group said it planned to launch Bitcoin Cash futures and Micro Bitcoin Cash futures on October 19, pending regulatory review.
- Bitcoin Cash drew fresh attention as regulated-market products tied to BCH moved forward while trading activity surged.
- BCH jumped about 30% over 24 hours and has gained around 58% over the past seven days.
- Grayscale filed an amended registration statement for its Bitcoin Cash Trust, adding another regulated route for investors to gain BCH exposure.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) skyrocketed on Wednesday morning after CME Group announced that it plans to launch Bitcoin Cash futures next month, if approved.
Bitcoin Cash was created from a hard fork of the existing Bitcoin blockchain. Like Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash has a maximum supply of 21 million coins. Bitcoin Cash’s price traded over $351, up over 30% over the past 24 hours, while Bitcoin’s price slipped below $86,000, trading flat over the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin Cash trading volume reached a one-month high, rising over 1.5 times since August 21, from $1.47 billion to $2.13 billion, according to Coinglass data. Over the past day, the token’s trading volume stood at $1.8 billion.
The rally triggered a flurry of fresh bets in the derivatives market. BCH open interest increased to around $600 million from approximately $350 million a few days before, data from CoinGlass showed. That is the highest level since May.
Open interest is the total value of outstanding futures contracts held by traders. It usually means inflow into the market, instead of traders closing out old positions, when it moves up with the price.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around BCH rose to ‘bullish’ territory from the ‘bearish’ zone, while BTC also remained in the ‘bullish’ zone over the past day.
Why Did Bitcoin Cash Rally?
CME Group said on Tuesday that it was introducing the new contracts in response to demand for regulated risk-management tools in high-liquidity altcoin markets, meaning traders wanted more regulated ways to trade altcoins and protect themselves against price swings. The standard Bitcoin Cash futures would represent 250 BCH, while the Micro contract would represent 25 BCH.
Futures are contracts that allow traders to gain exposure to an asset’s price without having to buy the asset directly. They can also be used to hedge, or reduce, the risk of adverse price movements. The planned CME products would therefore give traders another regulated route to trade or manage BCH exposure outside the spot crypto market.
Grayscale Pushes Bitcoin Cash ETF Plan Forward
The Grayscale filing from September 11 added another regulated-market development around Bitcoin Cash. The amended registration statement concerned the Grayscale Bitcoin Cash trust, which gives investors exposure to BCH through shares instead of requiring them to buy and store the cryptocurrency themselves.
The filing said that Grayscale planned to rename the product Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust ETF and list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Arca under the ticker “BCHG.”
What Is Bitcoin Cash?
Bitcoin Cash was created in 2017 after the Bitcoin blockchain split over how the network should handle more transactions. One group continued with Bitcoin, while the other created Bitcoin Cash.
The broader Bitcoin Fork sector also rallied, gaining over 25% in 24 hours and over 58% in seven days, with a combined market capitalization of roughly $7 billion, according to Coingecko data.
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