The international rating agency Moody's reported that it does not consider the impact of the launch of bitcoin futures on the credit rating of the CME or CBOE exchanges.
Nearly two months after the CME and CBOE exchanges added new derivatives to bitcoin on their lists, Moody's published an 11-page report stating that the combination of risk management for both companies, as well as the state of the crypto-currency market, reduces the potential risks :
"At the moment, the volumes of bitcoin futures are low, but CME and CBOE hope to awaken interest in this asset in the investor community. The price of bitcoin is highly volatile, but we do not believe that this market can materially affect the credit rating of CME or CBOE due to the small volumes and reliable risk management system in clearing centers (CCP). "
The report provides an overview of the formation of the futures market, and also considers the most acute problems, according to Moody's, which include the volatility of bitcoin prices. At the same time, the authors of the document argue that setting high marginal restrictions for transactions with bitcoin futures helps exchanges to reduce risks.
"The volatility of Bitcoin's price represents a problem for risk management systems in clearing centers, complicating the process of eliminating applications that do not meet the requirements of clearing participants," the company writes. "In order to cope with this risk, both CME and CBOE have established relatively high margin restrictions compared to submitted regulators initially. At the moment, low volumes also limit the potential losses of central counterparties. "
This also applies to brokers offering access to bitcoin futures, Moody's states - even if it is not completely clear how the margin restrictions will be set in the future. In particular, the report mentions brokers TD Ameritrade and E * Trade.
"The clearing margin will remain in motion and can quickly and substantially rise in response to the high volatility of bitcoin prices, and brokers will have to accept changes