The Wall Street Journal reports Bitcoin Futures Begin Trading With a Bang, CBOE Website Stalls.

The first bitcoin futures started trading Sunday, sparking a swift run-up in the price of the digital currency as the exchange provider's website experienced outages from heavy traffic.

Trading of the hotly anticipated U.S. bitcoin futures began at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Sunday on an exchange run by Cboe Global Markets Inc., while its larger rival CME Group Inc. plans to introduce its own bitcoin futures a week later.

Bitcoin Volatility

Bitcoin hourly changes have been as much as 20%. The moves have been so intense that futures trading would frequently halt numerous times daily on circuit-breaker rules.

Moreover, Bitcoin has traded at wildly different prices simultaneously, such as $15,000 on one exchange and $19,000 on another.