Head of Interactive Brokers Changes Tune: Bitcoin "Could Become Very Popular"

Thomas Peterffy, chairman of Interactive Brokers, told CNBC that he recognises that the fact that Bitcoin Bitcoin While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that Read this Term futures are now being sold on two major exchanges means that the asset will likely become even more popular.

This is significant because his company is the largest brokerage in the US.

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A month ago, Peterffy wrote a letter to the head of the American financial regulator to request that cryptocurrency be kept isolated from other financial products. The letter received a lot of attention because it was published in the form of a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal. He told Barron's: "For the first time, I am extremely scared."

His company has certainly changed its tune now:

$IBKR went from writing open letters abt the dangers of BTC futs to full page ads goading ppl to jump in the pool. What changed? pic.twitter.com/dGSP71dYZe

— Barbarian Capital (@BarbarianCap) December 16, 2017

To be fair, the multi-millionaire was never against cryptocurrency per se, but felt that the lack of what he called a "fundamental basis for valuation" made the price inherently unstable. He said in the letter: "The products and their markets have existed for fewer than 10 years and bear little if any relationship to any economic circumstance or reality in the real world."

The CBOE and the CME Group, two major exchanges based in Chicago, went ahead and began to offer Bitcoin futures trading regardless. This has had the effect of making Bitcoin even more valuable, as the public and regular companies take notice. This Sunday, the price hit $20,000 as one of the world's biggest brokers began selling futures contracts too.

Interactive Brokers put the contracts on its trading menu last week, albeit with much higher margins. He said to CNBC: "I think bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw Read this Term are great ideas. They should be allowed to be traded freely and used freely to find their appropriate role in the economy."

We last reported on Interactive Brokers on Thursday, when it received a fine of $250,000 from ASIC, the financial regulator of Australia. The fine was punishment for not detecting a client's fraudulent activities on the IB platform.