Legendary Crypto Short Seller Gloats as CBOE Dumps Bitcoin Futures
Former IMF economist Mark Dow enshrined his name in derivatives trading lore when he famously shorted the bitcoin price from its December 2017 peak near $20,000 all the way down to its trough below $3,500 a year later. Now, the legendary crypto short seller is gloating as the first exchange to list bitcoin futures delists the flagship cryptocurrency, perhaps for good.
‘Big Bitcoin Short’ Trader Mark Dow Laughs Off CBOE’s Crypto Futures Exit
Writing on Twitter, Dow joked that he caused the market’s liquidity to dry up when he closed out his epic short position.
“I guess this is what happened when I stopped trading it,” he wrote. “Thanks for the memories! $XBT R.I.P.”
On March 14, CCN reported that CBOE had suspended the addition of new XBT futures contracts. In its announcement, CBOE said that it chose to axe bitcoin futures while it reassesses its support for crypto products.
“CFE is not adding a Cboe Bitcoin (USD) (“XBT”) futures contract for trading in March 2019.CFE is assessing its approach with respect to how it plans to continue to offer digital asset derivatives for trading. While it considers its next steps, CFE does not currently intend to list additional XBT futures contracts for trading. Currently listed XBT futures contracts remain available for trading.”
All joking aside, since I had to roll my #bitcoin exposure each month last year, I saw that the liquidity got worse every time. Hard to buy the story about broadening institutional adoption when you see this. $BTC $XBT https://t.co/3gXFjwl5qc
— Dow (@mark_dow) March 14, 2019
Dow said that he was not surprised to see CBOE close its bitcoin futures market. Contravening the industry narrative that institutional investors are steadily moving capital into cryptocurrency, Dow said that liquidity in the institutional-focused futures markets got worse every month.
