Is Bitcoin Moving to Wall Street?

Trading options on Bitcoin is an investment activity that is not for the faint of heart. As volatile as the cryptocurrency markets are known to be, they actually present less investment risk than BTC options. This does not stop many individual and institutional investors from trading these derivative instruments, and this can be clearly seen in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange where BTC futures and options are handled.

According to recent CME data on BTC options, $810 million worth of these instruments were set to expire on September 17, and the sentiment behind them was quite bullish. Even though technical analysis shows that September has not been a good month for Bitcoin, there is one important piece of fundamental news that many traders are evaluating. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission recently sat down with directors from the Fidelity Digital Assets division, and the topic of discussion was the probability of approving an application for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund to be listed on Wall Street in the near future.

The Fidelity directors expressed the strong opinions that a Bitcoin ETF was going to be approved, as well as the fact that it was only a matter of time before the SEC gave a green light to a Bitcoin ETF on the NASDAQ exchange. Fidelity Digital Assets is one of the leading financial firms in the crypto industry, and Fidelity’s CEO, Abigail Johnson even stated that an approved ETF is going to be a “milestone” for the blockchain industry. These statements are quite bullish, and the majority of BTC options players had bought these instruments as the expiration date was approaching. However, at the time of writing this article, the market had made a sudden turn, and the sentiment was quite bearish.

According to the Coinbase data on September 17, the price of Bitcoin had dropped 6.7% from the previous day. The decline on September 17 was due to the fact that there had been few BTC futures contracts created. Moreover, many institutional investors with a short-term perspective had bought in at the price of $45,000. The price to beat for the rest of September would be $50,000.