
Ask HN: Why is no one arbitraging Bitcoin futures? - bko
Bitcoin futures started trading last night and are currently significantly above the spot price. They’re priced at ~17,900 and ~16,700 on the major exchanges. An investor could borrow money, buy bitcoins, short the future and wait until january for a guaranteed return.<p>Issues I see with this arbitrage strategy:<p>1. Holding cost of bitcoin from now until January too high<p>2. Unable to execute at the future or spot price<p>Am I missing anything else?
======
akhatri_aus
They're priced higher because of the interest rate to borrow bitcoins. As you
get to settlement date, the prices will converge. A lot of people are
leveraging their buys so there is an interest rate to holding bitcoin, and it
is quite high.

~~~
SilasX
Yeah, but that's a $1200 spread on a buy price of $16,700, or 7%/month which
is (compounded) over 100%/year. Even with the risk premium that seems like
it's too big not to have been arbitraged away.

