Trade volumes – where art thou…HODL

Finally, bitcoin trading has hit the Wall Street with the CBOE Global Markets launching bitcoin futures contracts on Dec. 10, while the CME Group will launch its own bitcoin futures contract on Dec. 17. So, what does this mean for the volatility of Bitcoin, which has the tendency to whipsaw 20% per day as fear and greed run like an alternating current and also, what are the implications for trading volumes? The futures market is all about risk transfer and mitigation, as opposed to wild west gambling. The problem is that unlike commodity futures, which are traded by both speculators and merchants, Bitcoin is not something you can just “settle”. Therefore, the rudimentary hypothesis that an introduction of futures market will help stabilise the market may be somewhat ill-founded.  Therefore, macro plays, be it Rocket Man, the Brexit, Trump or Putin, will continue to wreak havoc in the FX markets and subsequently Bitcoin. Or is the end game to simply legitimise the underlying asset and the other countless number of coins in circulation so that the ill-informed can get in on something very few really understand and know how to buy? Regardless, despite the monumental rally by Bitcoin, the actual trading volumes across various exchanges has failed to show up in an increased trading activity. One simple reason is that people are simply not willing to trade their coins and are holding onto their dear life…HODL.