CME Group's Current Cryptocurrency Offering
The contracts expand CME Group's current cryptocurrency offering, which includes Bitcoin and micro-sized Bitcoin options introduced in March 2021. Tim McCourt, global head of equity and FX products at CME Group, said,
"The launch of these new options contracts builds on the significant growth and deep liquidity we have seen in our existing Ether futures, which have traded more than 1.8 million contracts to date,"
Market participants supporting the roll-out of the new options include those who want to give their clients more hedging choices in the digital asset industry. The Digital Assets Head of Brokering at TP ICAP, Sam Newman, said that with the impending Ethereum protocol Merge, the company expects tremendous interest from both their traditional and crypto-native clients.
Ryan Duckworth, head of trading at US-based Akuna Capital, stated that they look forward to providing liquidity to allow customers to hedge risk and manage exposure to Ether as the demand for crypto derivatives increases. With Q2 volumes up 27% from Q1, CME Group experienced record daily volumes of Ether futures trading in July.