Derivatives Giant CME Group Laying the Groundwork To Launch Spot Bitcoin Trading: Report

By Rhodilee Jean Dolor

The world’s largest futures exchange is reportedly working on a plan to offer spot Bitcoin (BTC) trading amid growing interest in crypto-based investments.

Citing three people familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reports that the CME Group has already held discussions with traders who want to buy and sell cryptocurrency on a regulated marketplace.

The plan, which is not yet finalized, is to run CME’s spot trading business through the EBS currency trading venue in Switzerland.

A crypto trading executive is skeptical about the derivatives giant operating its Bitcoin trading business as two markets with CME in Chicago and EBS in Switzerland.

“I struggle to see how they would get all the efficiencies available to them.”

CME already hosts Bitcoin futures trading, but the launch of spot trading for the top crypto asset will make it easier for investors to place basis trades, a popular trading strategy among professional crypto traders that involves borrowing funds to sell futures while buying the underlying asset and extracting gains from the difference.

The development comes as the popularity of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) among deep-pocketed investors surges.

According to Bloomberg senior ETF analyst, Boston-based hedge fund Bracebridge Capital has $262 million worth of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), $81 million worth of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and $20 million worth of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC)

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), banking giant JPMorgan Chase also discloses that it now holds $760,000 in spot Bitcoin ETFs on behalf of its clients spread across BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF.

Banking titan Wells Fargo also holds 2,245 shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust currently worth $130,254.

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