It's like people are always crying for institutional investors but crypto will never get that without futures contracts. Companies want to be able to hedge their bets, for example by investing 70% of their allocated funds directly into the asset and 30% shorting it. And I think comparing BTC to precious metals is underselling it. IMO, with BTC futures it's way more practical and flexible. It can solve more central and pressing problems in our digitized world than metals that are used primarily for luxury goods. IMO no asset can even become mature without becoming part of mainstream economics. Bitcoin has to step into the light and if it shrivels and dies under it, maybe it was not that revolutionary to begin with. If Bitcoin want's to be a serious contender, it has to survive all of that.
https://medium.com/mark-price/can-you-drop-bitcoin-price-with-futures-contracts-81e8a45fc075