With cryptocurrencies showing such an astronomical leap forward in 2017, mainstream financial institutions are beginning to sit up and take notice. The underlying system, the distributed ledger technology (DLT) that is the Blockchain, is particularly suited to financial applications, although it has many other and more varied uses.

As far as Bitcoin's Blockchain is concerned, it functions as an electronic accounting ledger. The advantage over normal banking facilities is that records are not kept centrally; but every single transaction which is made using Bitcoin is stored permanently on a block which is added to the whole Blockchain.

Chicago made history with its launch of Bitcoin on the futures markets in December 2017. The Chicago Board Options Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange proved that investors were more than interested in hedging some bets on crypto trading, with an immediate climb in value for BTC up to $20,000.

Other big players in the fintech field are joining in, with the New York Stock Exchange filing for official permission to launch Bitcoin-based ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds). If the SEC grants permission, these ETFs would be linked to those Chicago futures markets. Hedge fund managers, and even big banks like Goldman Sachs, are also planning their own ventures into cryptocurrency trading, while NASDAQ is expected to launch Bitcoin futures on its own books in the middle of the year.