Bitcoin futures start: Day 1 of the New Era?

For more than four decades, the Chicago Board Options Exchange has allowed investors to place their bets on commodities from corn to steel.

Bitcoin made its debut on a major exchange Sunday, a landmark for the cryptocurrency that has generated enthusiasm among some investors and more than a little anxiety from others.

"Bitcoin bonanza takes hold of world markets," proclaimed the front page of the Times of London on Friday, reporting on the latest record price of the digital currency.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which certified bitcoin futures for trading, acknowledged the unprecedented step taken by the Chicago Board Options Exchange. Bitcoin "is a commodity unlike any the commission has dealt with in the past," CFTC chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo said in a statement December 1.

There's more to come. Bitcoin futures will also begin trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on December 17-18, while the Nasdaq will debut the options sometime next year.

The price of a single bitcoin recently soared on some exchanges from less than $10,000 to $17,000 before dropping back to near the $15,000 mark, spurring renewed warnings of a bubble.

Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade and others are barring trades at the moment, while Interactive Brokers is both preventing customers from shorting futures and setting a minimum margin of 50 percent. Goldman Sachs is open to them, but only expects to approve futures trading for some of its clients.

Still, Cboe's exchange could be important. The regulation and added transparency may give more legitimacy to bitcoin, particularly among institutions and investors who see it as a wild experiment. Also, it could help calm down bitcoin's extreme volatility in recent months.

Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz told Bloomberg TV that the currency "ought to be outlawed." But some people, particularly in the hedge fund world, where there's a healthy appetite for risk, say bitcoin futures present an opportunity.

Futures are contracts that let investors buy or sell something at a specific price in the future, in this case, bitcoin. Trading in futures contracts makes bitcoin more accessible to fund managers who don't want to own bitcoin directly but do want to speculate on whether it will go up or down in price.

While interest in bitcoin is growing, some establishment players are warning about futures trading.

Last week, the Futures Industry Association, which represents brokers and big banks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, wrote an open letter to the CFTC. It warned that the certification of bitcoin futures "did not allow for proper public transparency and input."

The association said that a "more thorough and considered process" would have allowed exchanges and trading clearinghouses more time to study ways to protect against extreme price swings.

The group is worried that banks could be on the hook if something goes wrong. For its part, CFTC head Giancarlo said in his statement this month that futures exchanges have agreed to "significant enhancements to protect customers and maintain orderly markets" for bitcoin.

He also warned investors "should take note" that the underlying bitcoin market is "relatively nascent" and remains "largely unregulated." Meanwhile, central banks around the world have been looking at ways to regulate the cryptocurrency.