Bitcoin Cash jumped up to $300 for the first time in nearly three months, driven by CME Group’s announcement that it will list BCH and Uniswap (UNI) futures contracts starting October 19, pending regulatory approval. The news triggered a nearly 30% price jump from $269 to $345, pushing BCH’s weekly gains to 57% and its market capitalization to $6.95 billion.
Despite the recent increase, BCH still dropped by over 43% year-to-date from its January 1 price of $600, lagging far behind Bitcoin and many altcoins that have bounced back most of their early-year losses. CME said it saw big institutional demand for regulated risk management products in high-liquidity altcoin markets and is now providing both standard and micro-sized contracts to boost capital efficiency.
The inclusion of BCH on CME is indeed significant. Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, which have had a CME futures listing for years, BCH has had a reputation of being a second-rate cryptocurrency due to its messy hard fork from Bitcoin in 2017 and lower amount of developers. This listing could be indicative of the growing maturity of the alt-coin derivatives market, and the desire of institutional investors to gain exposure to more than just the top two cryptos.
Furthermore, the timing of this listing coincides with increased regulatory clarity in the space, which makes crypto exchanges appealing to traditional finance players.
