Largest U.S. Digital Currency Exchange gets 100,000 New Users Overnight
Recently, the CME Group, which is the world’s largest derivatives operator announced that they’re planning to introduce bitcoin futures later this year. Initially, this move has helped bring about a new surge in the price of the digital currency, but it now looks like its impact is bigger than people first expected.
Therefore, public data compiled by the Alistair Milne indicates that a day after the CME Group made their announcement, around 100,000 users joined Coinbase, the biggest digital currency exchange in the United States.
Coinbase represents the largest cryptocurrency exchange operating in the US, and currently facilitates the exchange of multiple digital currencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. Following the announcement, the company managed to reach a total of 11.9 million users, as mentioned on its website.
So, why the high increase in number of users if Coinbase will not facilitate these payments, but rather the CME Group? Well, bitcoin futures will bring about an institutionalized form of investment that companies can get involved in. It allows for the development of complex investment possibilities that many want to take advantage of. However, it’s not really news for individual digital currency users, as the strength of bitcoin lies with the common users.
Regardless of this aspect, it is thought that the 100,000 additional users who have joined the platform are individuals who have been convinced that Bitcoin is the future of the financial market. With each day that passes, more and more people want a slice of the cake, and with bitcoin’s limited cap of 21 million coins to be put on the market, it’s better to purchase some of the digital currency now, rather than later. While around 16 million coins have been mined so far, with time, the rewards given to miners (newly-mined coins) is bound to halve every four years, according to the bitcoin protocol. In return, this increases demand and lowers the supply, thus leading to higher prices.