Hotly anticipated bitcoin futures debut in sedate fashion

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The price action was unlike the wild swings seen in past weeks. The first bitcoin future trades kicked off at 6 p.m. (2300 GMT) on CBOE Global Markets Inc's CBOE Futures Exchange, with January futures opening at $15,460, briefly dipping to a low of $15,420, and were last at $16,800, with 1,006 contracts traded.

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Heightened excitement ahead of the launch of the futures has given an extra kick to the cryptocurrency's scorching run this year.

The launch may indeed have caused an outage of the CBOE's website. The exchange said that due to heavy traffic on the CBOE Global Markets website on Sunday, the site "may be temporarily unavailable."

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Bitcoin fans appear excited about the prospect of an exchange-listed and regulated product and the ability to bet on its price swings without having to sign up for a digital wallet.

Others, however, caution that risks remain for investors and possibly even the clearing organizations underpinning the trades.

"You are going to open up the market to a whole lot of people who aren't currently in bitcoin," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.