- LedgerX now gives regular investors a $100,000 call option
- The announcement comes during a time when various Bitcoin derivatives exchanges are seeing a massive surge in trading volume
- CEO says competitors are six months behind LedgerX in terms of regulatory clearance
LedgerX, a very popular New York City-based bitcoin options trading platform which is “a Us-regulated trading platform for physically –settled digital currency derivatives”, was recently approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to offer physically-settled Bitcoin futures. LedgerX is the first of the many different cryptocurrency exchanges that are seeking clearance to get the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to give them a physically-settled futures contract in bitcoin. The Crypto derivatives and clearing platform are now providing retail investors a $100,000 call option for Bitcoin.
LedgerX expect a $2 trillion market cap
According to reports by Bloomberg, this option implies that Bitcoin could see a price surge up to $100,000 and could do a 10x, hitting a $2trillion market Cap by 2020. This is the first-ever crypto derivatives option open to regular investors after it was approved to serve as a designated contract maker. Previously, this feature was available only to institutional investors for two years now. Paul Chou, CEO of LedgerX, is optimistic about this new product. He commented:
“Dozens and dozens of these institutions got back to us saying we’d be interested in trading a contract like this. I understand $100,000 is a large number, but a lot of us who’ve been in this space remember Bitcoin at $1, and then it hit $10 and $100 and $10,000. A $100,000 contract doesn’t even make us blink.”
Significant first mover advantage for LedgerX
LedgerX is ahead of the curve because other established futures exchanges like Cboe Global Markets and CME Group also offer bitcoin futures, but they are not physically settled and hence that means the actual cryptocurrency does not move, previously there have been concerns about security issues because the cash-steeled process can often be manipulated. LedgerX can now effectively hedge their exposure across multiple exchanges. Chou believes other exchanges are almost six months behind LedgerX in gaining regulators’ approval for expanded access to Bitcoin derivatives.
The Cryptocurrency community has been reacting positively to this announcement and some believe that this is another step closer to the highly awaited Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF). Currently, LedgerX has more than 200 institutional clients invested in their physically-delivered swap products. All this has further added more credibility to their venture.
Bitcoin market in for more investment options
The institutional market is hyped about the rollout of physically-delivered bitcoin futures by cryptocurrency platform Bakkt, due July 22. The launch was delayed due to regulatory problems and now the institutional platform is eyeing the first product test this month backed by a $100 million insurance for storing assets. This means more investment options are on the way for Bitcoin.