More People Are Interested, Eurex Soon Launches Bitcoin Futures Market

Bitcoin trading is increasingly accepted in Europe. (photo credit: McKenzie/unsplash)

JAKARTA - Europe's first Bitcoin (BTC) futures will launch next month on the continent's largest derivatives market, Eurex. In a press release issued on Tuesday, August 24, digital asset-backed securities provider ETC Group said that its Bitcoin ETN Futures product will begin trading on September 13.

The ETC Group has operated the world's first Bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP), known as BTCetc Physical Bitcoin (BTCE).

Launched in June 2020 at Deutsche Boerse, there are now several crypto ETPs from the company. Three of them will also start trading on the Wiener Boerse – Vienna stock exchange.

The move comes amid growing investor demand for institutional products linked to Bitcoin and altcoins, with Europe traditionally providing a friendlier environment than the United States, dragging on due to approvals of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

As such, Eurex will host the first European futures contract based on the crypto ETP starting next month.

“Given the growing institutional demand for secure exposure to Bitcoin, we are pleased to begin listing these Bitcoin ETN futures on our regulated trading and clearing infrastructure at Eurex”, said Eurex executive board member Randolf Roth.

“This move will allow more market participants to trade and hedge Bitcoin, with this new future being treated in the same way as any other derivative contract in terms of centralized clearing, netting, and risk management”, added Roth.

Bitcoin was trading at USD 49,700 on August 24, down about 1% on the day after briefly crossing the USD 50.000 mark.

As Cointelegraph noted, institutional investor sentiment is slowly returning to support crypto portfolio exposure.

That said, institutional instruments such as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) have lagged behind the spike in spot prices, signaling that uptake is yet to return to the bull market levels seen before Bitcoin's all-time high in April.

The GBTC premium — the additional cost of Trust shares compared to the spot price of BTC — continues to hover in negative territory, the same as trading the stock at a discount.