To do that, the Chicago-based exchange will do what it does to virtually every other asset class traded under its roof, and impose limits on how much prices of bitcoin futures can fluctuate within a day.

While the CME already uses daily vol limits on most other markets, including crude, gold and market futures, to temporarily halt trading when price swings get out of control, the CME has never before dealt with something like bitcoin, which in addition to being the world's best performing asset classes in recent years, is also its most volatile. And, as the WSJ adds, it is also unclear how much impact CME's limits will have on bitcoin, since its futures market has yet to emerge and most trading in the digital currency is on exchanges outside of CME's control.

In any case, based on the CME's preliminary term sheet, bitcoin trading limits would kick in when the price of its bitcoin futures move 7%, 13% or 20% up or down from the previous day's closing price. The first two thresholds, for 7% and 13% moves, are "soft" limits, which would trigger a two-minute pause in trading of bitcoin futures. The 20% limit would be a "hard" stop on how far CME's bitcoin futures could swing on any day.