Bitcoin futures hit $20.3K right before BTC price drops $1K in 10 minutes

Bitcoin (BTC) futures hit $20,000 on Dec. 1 as all-time highs finally began to convert into a new price era for BTC/USD.

Data from TradingView showed Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Bitcoin futures heading past the historic $20,000 mark during Tuesday trading.

BTC price: $20,000 sparks unique volatility

At press time, highs of $20,300 had appeared amid characteristic volatility, which saw BTC/USD crash to $19,000 in under ten minutes.

"Worth noting that a $1,000 swing is just 5% now. Adjust accordingly," popular pseudonymous trader CryptoBull tweeted in response to the flash crash. 

The move is nonetheless a momentous occasion for Bitcoin, which today has officially broken above its all-time high of $19,892 established nearly three years ago. 

With futures normally a modest percentage higher than the spot price, CME and other operators' order books were already primed to head into uncharted territory first. CME in fact passed $20,000 when it launched at around $20,700 in December 2017, with the market still waiting for new all-time highs on Tuesday.

As Cointelegraph reported, record volume and open interest had already buoyed analysts keen to see the extent of institutional interest in Bitcoin as 2020 draws to a close.

This year has differentiated Bitcoin from 2017 when a previous attempt to crack $20,000 on spot markets coincided with the first futures markets going live.

Thanks to this weekend's volatility, a giant $1,300 "gap" in futures markets remained open as the new highs hit, this traditionally suggesting that BTC/USD will fall to "fill" it in. In this case, such a pullback could take the pair as low as $16,900.