After 'crashing' earlier in the week, Bitcoin soared in the last 24 hours following confirmation from the CFTC that it has approved regulated futures (and options) trading on CME, CBOE, and Cantor. This sent the price back above $11,000 and shifted the cryptocurrency to become the sixth most-circulated currency in the world.
Bitcoin had, by all accounts, a remarkably volatile week, losing $3 bln in market cap in just 90 minutes as the price slid from $11,400 to close to $9,000 (on some exchanges it flash-crashed to the low $8,000s). Nevertheless, within 36 hours, the cryptocurrency has rebounded to over $11,000.
image courtesy of CoinTelegraph
As CoinTelegraph reports, the CFTC news quickly rippled out across the industry and media, with a stream of delighted bullish statements gracing Twitter and other platforms.
“It’s an orgy” is how one strategist described the breaking news that US regulators have approved Bitcoin futures to start this month.
Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert said on CNBC: “I think it is going to enable finally the approval of Bitcoin ETFs, and other digital currency ETFs, which is game-changing,” he added.
And Bitcoin prices jumped...
As did Ethereum...
At a value of Bitcoin at around $11,000 each, the total value of all Bitcoins in circulation is around $180 billion, which as CoinTelegraph details means Bitcoin is now the sixth most circulated currency in the world, behind five super powers, and outranking the Pound, the Ruble, and the Won, according to the Bank for International Settlements.
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While the number is substantial, should Bitcoin rise to $15,000, it will overtake the next highest circulating currency, the Rupee. The other four currencies outranking Bitcoin are the Yen, Yuan, Euro, and Dollar, all of which have dramatically greater levels of currency in circulation (the Dollar, for example, stands at $1.4 tln).
These numbers are, of course, somewhat skewed, because the value of notes in circulation is not reflective of the total value of a currency. Nevertheless, the numbers reveal the substantial power of Bitcoin in terms of currency interactions.