At 5pm Chicago time on Sunday, CBOE bitcoin futures (XBT) began trading with a $15,000 opening price. Two and a quarter hours after trading opened for the contracts, 890 had been traded. The price of the January 2018 XBT contract went as high as $18,850 on Monday and as low as $15,420. Bitcoin’s high on the same day was $17,102 and its low $14,901.
CBOE twice halted trading overnight, once at 7.31pm Chicago time and again at 9.05pm. The exchange initially halts trading for two minutes when a bitcoin futures contract’s price moves up or down by 10% from its settlement price of the previous day, then triggers for five minutes if a 20% price move follows after trading reopens.
The exchange said that markets were orderly between and after these two halts.
Bitcoin’s price trajectory has been anything but. After hitting a $15,000 level late Thursday, the cryptocurrency hit $18,298 on Friday before falling to $14,336 later that day. Bitcoin stood at $16,501 on Monday at 3.40pm London time.
