Share this article
Bitcoin Futures Open Sees Price Spike, CBOE Crash
The CBOE's website became unavailable just as it launched its first bitcoin futures contracts on Sunday.
By Stan Higgins
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 7:15 a.m. Published Dec 11, 2017, 12:21 a.m.
Make us preferred on Google
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)'s website became unavailable just as it launched its first bitcoin futures contracts at 6 p.m. EST on Sunday.
The website downtime – which CBOE attributed to significant traffic around the futures launch in a post on Twitter – coincided with a sudden surge in the price of bitcoin, which jumped from $14,509 at 22:59 UTC to $15,732 at 23:06 UTC according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI).
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Yet as of press time, CBOE's website is becoming more available – delayed information about the contracts being offered can be found here – and the price of bitcoin has maintained a somewhat steady pace since that initial jump, trading at $15,226.29 per the BPI.
The data coming in thus far suggest that buyers are indeed moving to purchase contracts. Activity has been largely centered around the first contract to expire, dated January 17, 2018, with social media posts pointing to purchases of contracts scheduled to expire on March 14.
According to CNBC, 672 January contracts have been sold as of 7:10 pm EST, with the news service reporting a price of $15,800.
In all, the tumultuous start is perhaps a fitting start to the trading of the new contracts. CBOE's is the first to be traded on a major regulated exchange in the U.S., and it's set to be followed next week by CME Group, which has announced that it will launch its own products on Dec. 18.
According to executives from the firm, CBOE is hoping that the futures launch will lead to other products and services centered around cryptocurrencies, including a possible shift into exchange-traded funds and notes – provided that the SEC gives its approval.
Disclosure: CME Group is an investor in Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk's parent company.
Bitcoin and dollars image via Shutterstock
More For You
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
More For You
Strive’s preferred equity blueprint for Strategy’s $8 billion convertible debt overhang
The bitcoin treasury firm is using perpetual preferreds to retire convertibles, offering a potential framework for managing long dated leverage.
What to know:
- Strive upsized its SATA follow on offering beyond $150 million, pricing the perpetual preferred at $90.
- The structure offers a blueprint for replacing fixed maturity convertibles with perpetual equity capital that removes refinancing risk.
- Strategy has a $3 billion convertible tranche due in June 2028 with a $672.40 conversion price, which could be addressed using a similar preferred equity approach.
Top Stories
