CME launches Bitcoin futures amid calls for tighter regulation

CME, the largest exchange provider in the world, launched its Bitcoin futures market on Sunday evening to compete with rival Cboe which did so a week earlier, with initial predictions from investors signalling the cryptocurrency could hit a high of $20,865 by January.

Enthusiasm had somewhat subsided as the currency's value dropped on Coinbase from the $19,375 posted at 0000 GMT to $18,400, before clawing its way back to $19,200 by 1200 GMT.

Ronnie Moas, founder and director of Standpoint Research, who predicted an 80% rise for Bitcoin back in August when he issued it a $5,000 price target for 2018, said the currency would continue its meteoric rise despite fears of a bubble.

"The end-game on bitcoin is that it will hit $300,000 to $400,000 in my opinion, and it will be the most valuable currency in the world," the analyst said.

Moas highlighted that the present bitcoin rally had been boosted by the notion that only 21m digital tokens could exist.

"I don't know how much gold there is in the ground, but I know how much bitcoin there is, and in two years there will be 300m people in the world trying to get their hands on a few million Bitcoin," Moas said.

But Axel Weber, chairman of Swiss bank UBS, was not quite as easily convinced.

"We as a bank have very consciously warned against this product, because we do not consider it valid and sustainable," said Weber.

He warned of a potential crash as he called on regulatory boards to do something to intervene as the volume of small investors trading the cryptocurrency rose to new highs, something French finance minister Bruno Le Maire has also addressed.

Le Maire said France would propose that the G20 group of major economies discuss regulating the currency at its 2018 meeting.

"I am going to propose to the next G20 president, Argentina, that at the summit in April we have a discussion all together on the question of bitcoin," he said.

"There is evidently a risk of speculation. We need to consider and examine this and see how [...] with all the other G20 members we can regulate bitcoin," he added.