How To Short Sell Bitcoin, And Why More People Aren’t
Story by: Oliver Smith
During the first seven months of 2018 the price of bitcoin collapsed 53%—a fall supposedly triggered by concerns over regulation, exchange hacks and a general slowdown in trading.
For most, the decline was a disaster, wrecking small fortunes invested in the burgeoning cryptocurrency market.
For others, the plunge since December 2017 triggered a windfall, conveniently coinciding with the creation of the first mainstream methods of betting against bitcoin.
Bitcoin Futures arrived at the Chicago Board Options Exchange in December. Credit: AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato.
The dawn of crypto short-selling
Until recently it wasn’t easy to bet against bitcoin—if you thought a cryptocurrency was overvalued your only option was to sell what you held.
That all changed on December 10 when the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) opened the inaugural futures market for bitcoin, followed a week later by a futures market on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
Original story: https://tinyurl.com/yadxqe5f
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