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There are two big dates coming up for Bitcoin: Cboe Global Markets will be offering Bitcoin futures from December 10, the CME (Chicago Merkantile Exchange) will roll out a Bitcoin futures contract on December 18. These announcement caused the big rally Bitcoin and other crypto went through the last days, but now nobody really knows what happens next.

Futures are financial products that have been around since the late 19th century, they allow two parties to exchange an asset at a specified price at an agreed upon date in the future. In some cases the buyer of future contracts can receive their payment in the product itself (a barrel of oil, say), or in cash. The latter are referred to as cash settled futures. CME's bitcoin futures will settle in cash, which means people will be able to use US-Dollars to bet on the future price of Bitcoin without ever owning the cryptocurrency.

Futures could impact Bitcoin in many different ways:

It is likely that other Wall Street firms will hop on the train and participate in Bitcoin trading or will offer financial products connected to it. This could increase the general acceptance for cryptocurrencies and could mean big money pouring in.

It will be easier for institutions to buy BTC, but it will also be easier to short BTC (to bet on the price going down).

The CME plans to set price limits on the trading range of bitcoin futures, this could decrease volatility in the Bitcoin market. This is the optimistic point of view.

It is also possible that volatility could actually become worse, because even bigger financial trading firms could enter the market soon. And because Bitcoin is difficult to value a lot of different forces will act on its price. Shorts will become more popular, and disagreements on pricing could manifest in the cryptocurrency markets in the form of more extreme price jumps than ever before.

Extreme volatility could impact all other cryptocurrencies and could destabilize other cryptos as well.

#Conclusion

Nobody really knows how futures will impact Bitcoin. BTC lately surpassed $15,000 and still seems unstoppable, if it can prevail it could prove to really be Gold 2.0 and therefore has real and measurable value. If we see extreme volatility it could mean that it's simply an overvalued asset and based on pure speculation.

Either way: This crazy year will end with three very thrilling weeks, that could define the future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general.