The price of contracts for Bitcoin futures on the CBOE exchange leapt 10% overnight following the futures listing on the CME on Sunday.

Bitcoin, the popular cryptocurrency, has long been regarded as a ‘non-investment grade’ asset among large institutional investors due to its relatively small market size and lack of regulation.

However, recent moves by some global investment exchanges, such as CBOE and CME, have opened up the market to more investors with the launch of ‘futures’ contracts.

A Bitcoin futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell Bitcoin (depending on the contract you purchase) to another investor in the future.

According to CNBC, Bitcoin futures for January 2018 currently trade at $US19,710, having traded more than 10% higher overnight.

The move follows some selling pressure last week when commentators forecast the price of the cryptocurrency to fall after its listing on the futures market. In addition to opening up the market to large institutional investors, the CME and CBOE listings make it easier for investors to bet against Bitcoin.

“The introduction of short sales was necessitated by the large premium of the January futures contract over the price at which Bitcoin trades on the physical venues,” Interactive Brokers CEO Thomas Peterffy said.

The futures listing adds legitimacy for long-time Bitcoin investors, who have heralded it as the ‘future of money’. However, critics of the decentralised monetary system continue to emerge.

Yesterday, news surfaced that the North Korean Government is attempting to ‘hack’ into the Bitcoin market by sending dodgy Word documents that encourage users to open and edit the file.

According to Coindesk, Bitcoin currently trades at $18,914 per coin.