> Win for the Bears They just mean that the people who made money were the people who shorted the future i.e. who were expecting the price to drop over the ter

> Win for the Bears They just mean that the people who made money were the people who shorted the future i.e. who were expecting the price to drop over the term of the future. So those with a bearish outlook for Bitcoin made money. They're not making any particular claim about the effect of the future on the spot price. At least, that's not what they mean by a "Win for the Bears". In theory, the futures close price shouldn't have any effect on the spot price if the market is reasonably efficient. My understanding from the relevant CBOE announcements is that they didn't see anything fishy. That's not to say it can't though. Price manipulation around closes does happen in other derivatives markets and the relevant authorities monitor for it. There's more incentive in options markets which doesn't apply here yet.