Bitcoin rebounds to $10,500 after US regulator approves futures

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Bitcoin rebounded on Friday to hit the day’s highs above 10,500 US dollars, recovering from an earlier dip below 9,500 US dollars, after the US derivatives regulator said it would allow CME Group and CBOE Global Markets to list bitcoin futures.

The announcement by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) paves the way for CME and CBOE to become the first traditional US regulated exchanges to launch trading in bitcoin-related financial contracts, a watershed moment for the cryptocurrency that could lead to greater regulatory scrutiny.

Bitcoin, which had been trading at around 10,150 US dollars on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange before the news, jumped to as high as 10,513 US dollars in the 20 minutes that followed, leaving it up more than 5 percent on the day.

It has been a volatile week for the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency. On Wednesday, bitcoin smashed through 10,000 US dollars before rocketing past 11,000 US dollars less than 12 hours later to an all time-high of 11,395 US dollars, and then plunging around 20 percent in the hours that followed.

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Source(s): Reuters