The announcement by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) paves the way for CME and CBOE to become the first traditional US regulated exchanges to launch trading in bitcoin-related financial contracts, a watershed moment for the cryptocurrency that could lead to greater regulatory scrutiny.
Bitcoin, which had been trading at around US$10,150 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange before the news, jumped to as high as US$10,513 in the 20 minutes that followed, leaving it up more than 5% on the day.
It has been a volatile week for the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency. On Wednesday, bitcoin smashed through US$10,000 before rocketing past US$11,000 less than 12 hours later to an all time-high of US$11,395, and then plunging around 20% in the hours that followed.