Theres Something Very Strange Going On With Bitcoin Futures – Forbes

Bitcoin has been on a roller-coaster over the last few weeks, with the price often yoyoing up to thousands of dollars in minutes.

The bitcoin price is down almost half from its year-to-date highs, with the bitcoin and crypto market stuck on a downward trend for last six months.

Now, researchers have recorded "unusual" moves in the bitcoin futures market, with premium rates rising even as bitcoin prices fallsuggesting the bitcoin price could be headed higher next year.

[Update: 8.53pm EST December 6 2019] As the bitcoin price has recovered some ground today, moving above $7,500 per bitcoin, the price has realigned with CME's March 2020 bitcoin futures.

The bitcoin price has struggled in the second half of this year but bitcoin bulls are upbeat about ... [+] next year's outlook.

Between November 29 and December 2, the premium on bitcoin futures increased over 30% while the bitcoin price dropped around 6%.

"The premium rates on bitcoin March 2020 contracts have been increasing, although the bitcoin price has decreased," analysts at Arcane Research found, adding, "this is not a common observation."

Researchers also reported that bitcoin's implied volatility is set to rise to over 70% by June 2020, up from 55% for the middle of December 2019.

"This clearly show that traders anticipate changes in the bitcoin price. To put this in perspective, gold options for June 2020 trade with an implied volatility of 11.5%."

There has been a sharp rise in the price of bitcoin futures contacts between now and March next ... [+] year, even as the bitcoin price falls.

Despite bitcoin's recent sell-off, many bitcoin and cryptocurrency market watchers are feeling good about next yearbitcoin and crypto heavyweights have been predicting a sudden price surge,technical data is looking positive, andrecent developments suggest 2020 could be a big year for bitcoin.

Meanwhile, the looming bitcoin halving event, set for May next year, will see the number of bitcoin rewarded to miners cut by half and some expect this to boost the bitcoin pricethough others disagree.

View original post here:

Theres Something Very Strange Going On With Bitcoin Futures - Forbes