Start of bitcoin futures trading overwhelms exchange webiste.
The Latest on the debut of bitcoin futures trading (all times local):
9:30 p.m.
Bitcoin futures are spiking in their first hours of trading.
Trading in the first-ever bitcoin futures began at 5 p.m. central time. At 9:15 CST, the futures contract that expires in January, which opened at $15,000, was trading at $18,010, according to CBOE Global Markets.
The CBOE’s competitor exchange, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, will start trading its own futures on Dec. 18.
The price of a bitcoin has soared since beginning the year below $1,000, hitting a peak of more than $16,858 Dec. 7 on the bitcoin exchange Coindesk. As of 9:10 p.m. CST, it was at $16,405.76 on Coindesk.
6:05 p.m.
The first-ever bitcoin futures rose in early trading. The futures rose $540 to $16,000 on the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
The traffic to the Chicago Board Options Exchange website after start of trading overwhelmed the site.
« Due to heavy traffic on our website, visitors to www.cboe.com may find that it is performing slower than usual and may at times be temporarily unavailable, » the exchange said in a statement. But it said the trading in the futures had not been disrupted.
Bitcoin is a digital currency that has exploded in popularly and volatility this year. Sunday marked the first time bitcoin futures have traded on a major U. S. exchange.
The CBOE futures do not involve actual bitcoin; they’re securities that will track the price of bitcoin on Gemini, one of the larger bitcoin exchanges.
