At press time, bitcoin (BTC) is priced at US$9,145 with just over a 2% loss during the last 24 hours of trading. Ethereum (ETH) is currently trading at US$732 and Ripple at US$0.81.
CLICK BELOW FOR REAL-TIME CRYPTOCURRENCY PRICE INDEXES:
Recent headlines have been dominated by three of the world's richest people using the platform their wealth provides to slam cryptocurrencies.
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett called bitcoin ‘probably rat poison squared,’ and his partner Berkshire Chairman Charlie Munger said trading in cryptocurrencies is ‘just dementia.’
Meanwhile, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told CNBC that he would bet against bitcoin if he could.
He said: "As an asset class, you're not producing anything and so you shouldn't expect it to go up. It's kind of a pure 'greater fool theory' type of investment."
"I agree I would short it if there was an easy way to do it."
Responding to Gates, Tyler Winklevoss, the founder of crypto exchange Gemini, challenged the Microsoft co-founder’s remarks on Twitter.
"There is an easy way to short bitcoin," Winklevoss said in a tweet.
"You can short #XTB, the CBOE Bitcoin Futures contract, and put your money where your mouth is," Winklevoss added.
Bitcoin Futures, which launched in December 2017, allow investors to bet on the future price of bitcoin without touching the volatile digital currency. BTC soared towards its all-time high of US$20,000 per coin in December 2017, leading up to the launch of futures.
While the futures markets are not as well-known as equities, investors can easily take a position (either long or short) in the market through a traditional financial broker.
The markets for bitcoin futures have steadily picked up since their launch, with close to 10,000 contracts for the front month trading on Cboe Global Markets at last check, according to Cboe data.