Brokerage Chief: Bitcoin Futures Must Be Quarantined
November 15th, 2017Via: CoinDesk:
A well-known electronic brokerage firm is issuing dire warnings against the CME Group’s plan to launch a bitcoin futures contract next month.
But Interactive Brokers, in a comment letter dated Nov. 14, suggested a way to mitigate the risk it sees from such activity: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), under the auspices of J. Christopher Giancarlo, should sequester systems that handle cryptocurrency derivatives.
“This letter is to request that the Commission require that any clearing organization that wishes to clear any cryptocurrency or derivative of a cryptocurrency do so in a separate clearing system isolated from other products,” wrote Thomas Peterffy, chairman of Interactive Brokers.
…
“If the Chicago Mercantile Exchange or any other clearing organization clears a cryptocurrency together with other products, then a large cryptocurrency price move that destabilizes members that clear cryptocurrencies will destabilize the clearing organization itself and its ability to satisfy its fundamental obligation to pay the winners and collect from the losers on the other products in the same clearing pool.”
