Has Bitcoin’s Price Become Immune to the Effect of Expiring BTC Futures Contracts?

On the 26th of October, Ethereum World News notified its readers of the expiration of Bitcoin (BTC) Futures contracts offered by the CME Group. The BTC Futures contracts were expiring on the same day at 4pm London Time. Some traders have also put forth the idea that they usually expire at 4pm GMT. The difference between the two time zones is one hour but we can observe from this past Friday, that the price of BTC was not affected by the expiring contracts.

Evidence of a Stable BTC

The following chart highlights the price of Bitcoin over the past 7 days. It shows that the price of BTC has continued to be stable above $6,400.

Past Reactions of BTC During the Expiration of Futures Contracts

From the CME Website, we were provided with the following information as to when futures contracts expire:

Termination of Trading: Last Day of Trading is the last Friday of contract month. Trading in expiring futures terminates at 4:00 p.m. London time on Last Day of Trading.

Further breezing through Bitcoin’s price chart during the last Friday of past months, we get the following chart (which is a bit rudimentary but it for visualization purposes only.)

The CEO of Fundstrat, Thomas Lee, had made a similar observation but with regards to the CBOE futures back in June.

Bitcoin sees dramatic price changes around CBOE futures expirations. This was something flagged by Justin Saslaw at Raptor Group. We compiled some of the data and this indeed seems to be true.

A broader observation is there is significant volatility around these expirations.

In conclusion, something unique happened this past Friday with the expiration of the Bitcoin futures contracts being offered by the CME Group. During the event, the price of BTC proved to be stabler this time round than was previously witnessed whenever the investment products expired in previous months.

The observation that BTC has become immune to their effects cannot be declared a fact by using just one sample of the 26th of October. Therefore, we need to observe BTC when the next CME Futures contracts expire on the 30th of November and 28th of December. There are also some CBOE Futures contracts that expire on the 14th of November and the 19th of December. After observing Bitcoin’s reaction on these dates, we can make a more fact based conclusion.

What are your thoughts on the recent stability of Bitcoin? Does it signal a pending Bull run? Please let us know in the comment section below. 

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to give financial advice. Any opinion herein is purely the author’s and does not represent the opinion of Ethereum World News or any of its other writers. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the numerous cryptocurrencies available. Thank you.