Bitcoin is on its way to becoming a new asset class like Gold

The digital currency is likely to become a new asset class in itself, such as gold and equities, which can be traded and organized by major investors, so that they are no longer just an encrypted currency, according to the Honorary Chairman of the CME Group. .

The group - one of the world's largest derivative markets - announced last week it would launch future contracts for developers, a major step in the digital currency path towards public acceptance.

Melamed said he expected senior investors to take part in futures contracts that the Chicago bourse plans to start by the end of the year.

"This is a very important step for the start date," he said in an interview with Reuters. "We will organize the structure ... we will not make it unstable or more exciting, but we will run it to become a regular trading tool with the rules."

Futures will allow investors to sell over-the-counter (sell a guarantee before buying it later at a lower value, used if the investor expects the price to fall in the near future), making the bets possible, the trend expected to attract institutional investors, Not just speculators.

So far, six-fold gains in the price of so-called sequencing have sparked controversy in financial circles over whether the digital currency represents a revolution in financial technology or just another technical bubble.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive Jimmy Demen said in September that "fraud" was a "fraud" and would explode because regulators in many countries