CME CEO: Bitcoin Futures Could Begin Trading As Soon As December

CME Group chairman and CEO Terry Duffy has said that the derivatives exchange operator could list a planned bitcoin futures product as early as next month.

The firm made waves in October when it revealed that it was seeking regulatory approval to list its first bitcoin-related product. At the time, CME said that the futures would be tied to its existing price index, launched in 2016, and be settled via cash.

Speaking to CNBC today, Duffy said that trading could begin as early as the second week of December.

“I think sometime in the second week of December you’ll see our contract out for listing,” he told the network.

Among Duffy’s notable comments in the interview: insight into how CME would handle major fluctuations in the price. He suggested that CME could move to halt trading in the event of significant swings, and that existing rules would be called upon in the event of a catastrophic price decline.

“Listen, when someone says to me, the price is going to zero, what are you going to do, I’m not going to let it go to zero,” he explained. “I’m going to implement something. If the market drops precipitously, we’ll stop trading, and if we think a product is going away, we have the longs, we have the shorts, we’ll match them up at a price and that’s the way our rules read today.”

Disclosure: CME Group is an investor in Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk’s parent company