Bitcoin has stunned many investors by soaring 50 per cent this past week alone, cracking the US$16,000 mark on Thursday before retreating slightly from its highs. 

The rapid rise in the cryptocurrency’s value came days before bitcoin futures started trading on CBOE Global Markets Inc. on Dec. 10. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) bitcoin contracts will debut just over a week later on Dec. 18.  Bringing bitcoin futures to market is expected to boost interest in the cryptocurrency, but is also leaving investors to question how long the run can be sustained.  

A number of experts have weighed in on bitcoin’s rise, and what could happen to the currency once futures begin trading. Here’s what some of them have told BNN:

JASON DEL VICARIO, PORTFOLIO MANAGER, HOLLISWEALTH 

 

“I must confess the rise in bitcoin has just been unbelievable. The primary concern I have with bitcoin is at this point it is unregulated…It seems unfathomable to me that the Federal Reserve or the Bank of Canada would just sit there and allow this to continue into perpetuity. If I was owning bitcoin that would be the one thing that would keep me at night.”

BILL BARUCH, PRESIDENT, BLUE LINE FUTURES  

 

“In this bubble sort of spectrum, we could only be about one-third of that way in. And we could see this price double or triple…Ultimately [bitcoin future contracts are] great for bitcoin and bitcoin investors because it’s going to bring more attention, it’s going to further the logistics of the actual product itself… it’s just a very interesting space right now.”

SCOTT BAUER, MARKET STRATEGIST, CME

 

“What’s going to happen when the market opens up? That is the million-dollar question … My gut feeling is that initially we will see some downward pressure in the price of bitcoin…because now, for the first time, we’re going to have the ability to have some sellers in the marketplace. That being said, I don’t know if that downward pressure is going to last for a day, a week, a month. But we will come to a balance.”

ROBERT HERJAVEC, CEO, THE HERJAVEC GROUP  

 

“It’s crazy… I really think the cryptocurrency is going to go up. It’s definitely a bubble. Its underlying technology, blockchain, is here to stay…I think, as an investor, I try to put the speculation aside and look at the underlying infrastructure.”

MIKE NOVOGRATZ, HEDGE FUND MANAGER

 

“I think it will be the biggest speculative mania of our lifetimes.”

JIM PATTISON,  CHAIRMAN AND CEO, THE JIM PATTISON GROUP 

 

“We’ve been following it actually for, I don’t know, two or three or four years – but we’ve never invested in it up to now. We just don’t know enough about it. We can get into enough trouble all by ourselves with something we think we know something about without getting involved with [bitcoin] at this stage of the game.” 

TONY CHAPMAN, CEO, TONY CHAPMAN REACTIONS

 

“If this is really going to happen – this currency is going to take over the world, are the world powers just going to stand by and let that happen?...What I do like is the blockchain technology. It’s the printing press of this century.”

CRAIG ERLAM, SENIOR MARKET ANALYST, OANDA

 

“We’ve seen some quite incredible moves over the course of the past week, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the more bitcoin appears in the headlines, the more people are searching for it, and the bigger the speculative bubble is growing … I think the next couple of weeks it’s going to be very interesting though...people are going long bitcoin. The opportunity to short it just isn’t really there.  So it will be quite interesting when we start to see the futures start being traded if we start to see speculative shorts building up. ”

GREG NEWMAN, SENIOR WEALTH ADVISOR, SCOTIA WELATH MANAGEMENT

 

“Anything could happen, I could be wrong, but I would suggest that there might be a heck of an air pocket.”

EDDIE GEORGE, FORMER NFL STAR

 

“Everybody’s talking about bitcoin. I know that my grandma’s talking about bitcoin. It’s something that I’m keeping a close eye on. I’m still getting an understanding about it – getting my hands wrapped around the value of it, how it’s backed. It appears to be a bubble. But some guys really believe in it and they’re living by it. I’m just on more of the cautionary side – just going to see how it all plays out.”