Ally Invest ‘Closely Watching’ Bitcoin Futures, But Will Not Offer Them with CME Launch

EXCLUSIVE—Ally Invest will not offer bitcoin futures as the CME Group opens the offering, the company told Bank Innovation.

Ally was one of several brokerages staged to support the CME Group’s bitcoin futures on its network, but has since taken a step back after “monitoring the activities of the past week,” according to an emailed statement sent to Bank Innovation.

With its need for “further analysis,” Ally Invest joins several other financial firms who are currently not offering their clients access to bitcoin futures, including mutual fund company Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab.

Goldman Sachs will offer select clients access, while banks Citigroup, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and JPMorgan Chase will not offer support for the futures, perhaps unsurprising in Chase’s case, as the bank’s CEO Jamie Dimon is famously bearish on bitcoin.

The CME Group began trading for bitcoin futures last night, and the beginning of the offering was not auspicious: prices opened at $20,650 and fell 3.8% during the evening to $18,760, before another small rise.

This compares to the previous launch of bitcoin futures by CME rival group CBOE, which saw a 19% rise in price during its first day of trading last week.

Bitcoin itself is currently hovering around $18,670 in price, as of 10am ET today.

Ally’s full statement to Bank Innovation is below:

As had been previously stated, Ally Invest was prepared to offer the Bitcoin Futures offering from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which is scheduled to launch Monday, December 18. However, after monitoring the activities of the past week and conducting further analysis of the level of controls and requirements for this product, we have decided not to offer it at launch. Instead, we will closely watch the Bitcoin Futures market as it develops and continue to evaluate the offering for our clients.

Ally declined to provide more details on the subject at this time.

To learn more about the latest developments in cryptocurrency and blockchain, join us on March 5-6, 2018 at the Parc 55 in San Francisco for Bank Innovation 2018. Click here to register.