Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NASDAQ GS: IBKR), a global electronic brokerage firm, began offering clients the ability to trade bitcoin futures at the start of trading on the Cboe Futures Exchange (CFE) on Sunday night, December 10th, 2017. In addition to offering bitcoin futures from the CFE, under the ticker symbol GXBT, the company plans to offer bitcoin futures from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) at the scheduled start of trading December 18th using the symbol BRR. IBKR was there at the start of trading and its systems operated normally.
“Interactive Brokers was on the buy side of the low print of 14,710,” said Thomas Peterffy, founder, Chairman and CEO of Interactive Brokers. “A Registered Investment Advisor on the Interactive Brokers platform purchased two March contracts in the first minute of trading.”
As of 9:15am ET on Monday, the company said that 201 of its accounts had placed 1,240 trades in bitcoin futures totaling 1,429 contracts representing approximately 50% of exchange recorded volume. The recorded value of all futures trades at Cboe exceeds $50 million.
The all-in commission rate, including exchange and regulatory fees, for bitcoin futures will be US $5.01 per contract for the Cboe product and US $15.01 per contract for the CME product. The CFE contract size is for one bitcoin, and the CME contract size is for five bitcoins. Old and new clients can learn more about trading bitcoin futures with IBKR and sign up for “Crypto” trading permission here.
Due to the extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies, clients will be unable to assume a short position. In addition, only limit orders will be accepted. IBKR’s margin requirement on long positions will be at least 50%. The company will continue to monitor concerns surrounding the market’s ability to process bitcoin futures risk.
Clients can subscribe to live quotes for both Cboe and CME bitcoin futures.
