By Friday afternoon Bitcoin's value had skyrocketed by nearly 17-hundred percent from the beginning of the year. This week, Bitcoin futures began trading on a major financial exchange for the first time allowing the market to bet on whether the future price will rise or fall. The world's largest exchange, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, is scheduled to start trading Bitcoin futures next week. Has this changed Bitcoin's perception and brought the digital currency into the mainstream? CGTN's DAN Williams reports from Chicago.

A busy afternoon of trading at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. Cboe is one of the largest futures exchanges in the world with around one million contracts trade here each day. Although this trading floor is focused on more traditional assets, across the room, there is an altogether different option now available for traders. Cboe became the first exchange operator to offer trade on Bitcoin futures. Although the volume of trade so far has been relatively low compared to other asset classes, the interest in the cryptocurrency is clearly there.

JOHN DETERS CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, CBOE GLOBAL MARKETS "We're very excited about the launch of Bitcoin futures. It is one of our most successful brand new products ever. With any product there is always a span of time to develop volume, contracts traded in the product, but we've seen great interest in this. The interest has been across the board from different kinds of market participants. Large firms, all the way down to individuals. And we see it coming from the US, from Europe and from Asia. So we like that breadth of participation."

Cboe futures do not involve trading actual Bitcoins. Bitcoin futures are derivatives. When investors buy them, they're making bets on the future price direction of the digital currency. The first day of trading wasn't entirely smooth with exchanges halted twice to stem volatility. Michael Unetich is vice president of Cryptocurrencies at Trading Technology, a company that specializes in vendor exchange software. He believes trading Bitcoin futures on regulated exchanges will help encourage even more investment in cryptocurrencies.

MICHAEL UNETICH CRYPTOCURRENCIES VP, TRADING TECHNOLOGIES "It gives people a more traditional way to invest. It may also indicate to people that this is the kind of asset that you may want to have some kind of percentage of your portfolio or your wealth diversified into. And it is now at an exchange that has an established reputation. So I think that has brought a lot of new people into this space."

DAN WILLIAMS CHICAGO "Although the move by Cboe to trade Bitcoin futures may further legitimize the digital currency, skeptics continue to warn that trading in the underlying asset - Bitcoins - could be a financial bubble that should it burst, and wipe out billions."

Despite that fear, Steven Todd of the Quinlan School of business believes the potential of cryptocurrencies in the market is clear.

STEVEN TODD QUINLAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS "I think either Bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency will exist ten years from now and we may very well be buying all of our goods and services with that type of currency. Do I think that will happen in ten years' time or twenty years' time, I don't know. But I certainly think it is possible."

For now, trading floors like this one, continue to focus on traditional currencies and gold. Whether cryptocurrencies can overtake those traditional asset classes is still unclear espite Bitcoins' one way trajectory upward. Dan Williams CGTN Chicago.