(Yicai Global) Dec. 11 -- Trading of bitcoin futures on the Chicago Board Options Exchange began at 7:00 am today (5:00 pm Central Standard Time yesterday), bringing the digital asset to the world of mainstream finance.

Contracts that will settle for cash on Jan. 18 opened in New York at USD15,460 before climbing during Asian trading. Futures for the cryptocurrency with the largest market cap rose as much as 26 percent in their debut session on the Cboe Global Markets Inc.'s exchange, tripping two circuit breakers -- temporary halts designed to calm the market.

After trading started, internet users flocked to Cboe's webpage.

"Due to heavy traffic on our website, visitors to cboe.com may find that it is performing slower than usual and may at times be temporarily unavailable," Cboe said. "All trading systems are operating normally."

"It is rare that you see something more volatile than bitcoin, but we found it -- bitcoin futures," Bloomberg quoted Zennon Kapron, managing director of Shanghai-based consulting firm Kapronasia, as saying.