CFTC warns of Bitcoin-futures dangers, after allowing them

Two weeks ago, the CFTC enabled a watershed for bitcoin by announcing that CME Group and Cboe Global Markets would start offering bitcoin derivatives

Bitcoin is going mainstream via the futures market, and the U.S. regulator that allowed it to happen has a message: buyer beware.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a statement detailing “the risks of virtual currency trading” and urged investors to educate themselves before buying into an asset class that has surged more than 1,700 per cent this year.

The warning underscores that even as Washington makes it easier for bitcoin to move out of the shadows, worries remain that the mom-and-pop investors who’ve helped fuel its rise have little idea what they’re jumping into. Some of the biggest names in