A cryptocurrency is a digital asset. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero, Ripple, Zcash and other digital asset are cryptocurrencies.
Since cryptocurrencies are are volatile, you can lose your invested funds in a split second.
Bitcoin Futures Products are becoming a mainstream. Recently, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME) and the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) began discussions with the CFTC about listing new bitcoin futures products. The launch of the bitcoin futures contract will provide investors with an opportunity to trade bitcoin exposure in a regulated market.
In order to offer bitcoin futures products CME, CFE and others may need to increased their margin levels. Since Bitcoin is volatile, market makers entities may need to increased their own funds, and to make sure the bitcoin futures products can be settled.
If you want to enter the bitcoin world, and buy bitcoin, there are many guides out there, coindesk is a good place to start your research (please find attached a link).
Remember, the bitcoin’s wallets (which are like a bank that stored your bitcoin) are not regulated, therefore, when your cryptocurrency is in a “cold storage” (cold storage in the context of bitcoin refers to keeping a reserve of bitcoins offline), and you protect your own private keys, the wallet’s security or safe status is not your concern (you will have other security issues to worry about (is your computer safe? how to protect it? etc.)).
Moreover, bitcoin exchanges are mostly not regulated, please find attached a list of exchanges (press here). Coinbase, Gemini and itBit are an example for regulated exchanges, but digital and virtual currencies are not issued or backed by the U.S. government, or related in any way to U.S. currency, and have fewer regulatory protections. Moreover, please make sure the exchange is regulated by trustworthy jurisdiction (not all regulators are alike).
Conclusion, the cryptocurrencies world has unique challenges, it is volatile, not fully regulated, hard to protect, assets prices may differ between exchanges, your financial adviser may not be able to assist you on cryptocurrencies matters, its open for potential market manipulation, market dislocations due to flash rallies, crashes, trading outages etc. If you are a novice, never invest money you cannot afford to lose.