Danger in Attaching Futures to the ‘Wild West’ of Bitcoin

Nick discussing Bitcoin on CNBC: "Bitcoin futures adds some legitimacy to the cryptocurrency, but there is a downside, noted Wall Street analyst Nick Colas told CNBC on Friday. He's concerned that over the next couple of weeks hackers will try to get into the wallets and exchanges that trade bitcoin in order to drive prices down, as well as cause uncertainty about the quality of the underlying asset. Then they can play in the futures market in an effort to make money. "That is the danger of attaching a very established asset type, like futures, to the Wild West, which is the bitcoin ecosystem. That, I think, is what a lot of market observers, particularly in the futures market, are worried about and rightly so," Colas, the co-founder of DataTrek Research, said in an interview with "Closing Bell." Colas was the first Wall Street analyst to cover bitcoin, which has been on a wild ride of late. The digital currency soared from about $11,000 on Monday morning to above $19,000 on Thursday. It then dropped down to about $15,000." Keep reading on CNBC here!