The new futures contracts will be settled in cash, based on the CME 'CF Bitcoin Reference Rate', a once-a-day reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of bitcoin, the company said.

The price of bitcoin jumped to as high as $6338.60 according to trade website Coindesk's price index, which aggregates the prices quoted across several exchanges. That was up from around $6,215 before the news.

On the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, bitcoin jumped to as high as $6,351 , up almost 4 percent on the day.

Bitcoin has surged in value by around 555 percent so far this year.

(Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by John Geddie)

By Jemima Kelly