Litecoin founder Charlie Lee is excited about the potential impact of Litecoin’s upcoming futures launch.
“Litecoin futures will open up LTC trading to more institutional investors,” says Lee. “This will add to the liquidity of Litecoin and make it easier for people to get in and out of Litecoin.”
London-based Crypto Facilities, a trading and index platform, will launch the first regulated Litecoin-Dollar futures on June 22, enabling market participants to go long or short Litecoin. Crypto Facilities will add the new derivative product to its growing list of crypto derivatives which currently includes Ethereum, Ripple and Bitcoin.
The firm provides CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, with the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate to power its Bitcoin futures, and the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate and Real Time Index.
According to the announcement, Crypto Facilities is responding to client demand and paving the way for big money. “As digital assets continue to mature, we expect to see a greater number of institutional investors entering the marketplace,” said CEO Timo Schlaefer.
The latest addition of Litecoin to the crypto derivatives market comes just two weeks after the Wall Street Journal reported that regulators are investigating how the first Bitcoin futures products from CME Group in December 2017 may have impacted the market, causing a surge in the price of Bitcoin to nearly $20,000. Bitcoin is currently trading around $6,751.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) subpoenaed four major exchanges – Coinbase, itBit, Bitstamp and Kraken – in order to examine trading data at the time of the futures launch and to evaluate the likelihood of Bitcoin manipulation. The agency has taken cautious yet open approach to virtual currencies, issuing an advisory notice regarding pump and dump schemes, and noting that the latest advancements in the fintech sector “have the potential for significant or even transformational impact on CFTC-regulated markets and the agency itself.”
CFTC Chairman Christopher Giancarlo Chairman has been outspoken about the agency’s need to understand the appeal of cryptocurrencies and new technology. “There is something going on here that is generational. Just as the baby boomer generation lost faith in the leaders that came before them and tried to seek a cultural change in those days through sex, drugs and rock and roll, I think there is a generation that also has lost faith in us that led them through the financial crisis and they see technology as a way of disintermediating institutions for which they don’t have a great deal of respect,” he said. “We are struggling to find out how we apply an old law to really new and different applications.”