CMC Markets is now offering prices on leading cryptocurrency markets for traders using financial spread bets and CFDs (contracts for difference). The broker, which launched cryptocurrency trading for professional investors in March of this year, is now allowing CFD trading and spread betting for retail clients against Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Both Bitcoin and Ethereum are being priced against the US Dollar.
“We have received increasing interest from our retail client base to trade this unique digital asset class,” explained David Fineberg, the group commercial director at CMC Markets. “Our clients have expressed an interest in trading on the two more established cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin and Ethereum – so we are pleased to offer them the opportunity to trade these two cryptocurrencies.”
Fineberg said that spread betting and CFDs offer an attractive way to trade cryptocurrencies, providing traders with the ability take advantage of price movements without having to buy cryptocurrencies using a digital wallet.
“Adding cryptocurrencies to our portfolio of financial instruments allows clients to take a position with an established provider where funds can be deposited or withdrawn with ease, and the risks of purchasing cryptocurrencies directly through an exchange can be avoided.”
Some traders have complained that it frequently takes too long to buy and sell cryptocurencies like Bitcoin using the specialist cryptocurrency exchanges, if they want to take advantage of short term price movements.
CMC is not the first broker to launch cryptocurrency trading: other provides, like City Index and eToro also offer a number of cryptocurrency prices. There remains some doubt among the broker community as to whether cryptocurrency trading really has ‘legs’ and can be sustained as a viable market. CMC’s caution is evident in that it has only launched Bitcoin and Ethereum so far, with other established cryptocurrencies, like Litecoin and Ripple, left off the menu.
