Crypto Today: Bitcoin retakes $10K on CME's announcement

Following a two-day long correction, the BTC/USD pair gained traction on Friday and added nearly $800 and pierced through the critical $10000 mark to renew its best level since Tuesday, when it hit its all-time high at $11427. As of writing, the pair was trading at $10540, adding $630, or 6.4%, on the day. In the meantime, the ETH/USD pair, which lost a total of 20% on Wednesday and Thursday, also staged a robust recovery and was last seen trading at $450 up 4% on a daily basis.

The CME Group's official announcement to launch bitcoin futures on December 18 seems to the primary catalyst behind today's rally. "We are pleased to bring Bitcoin futures to market after working closely with the CFTC and market participants to design a regulated offering that will provide investors with transparency, price discovery, and risk transfer capabilities," Terry Duffy, CME Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement. "At launch, our new Bitcoin futures contract will be subject to a variety of risk management tools, including an initial margin of 35 percent, position and intraday price limits, and a number of other risk and credit controls that CME Group offers on all of its products," the statement further read.

The total market capitalization of all digital currencies surpassed $300 billion by gaining more than $40 billion in the last 24 hours. According to the latest available data on coinmarketcap.com, the total market cap was at $317 billion. Bitcoins trading volume remains steady near 56% while ether is slightly lower at 13.8%.