On April 17, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group announced that it will expand its range of cryptocurrency options by adding new options to its standard and micro-sized Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) contracts. Pending regulatory review, these new contracts will be available from May 22, and the expirations will be available every day of the business week from Monday to Friday.
According to the announcement, CME Group’s expanded set of cryptocurrency options will include new expiration dates for Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts. These options will now expire every day from Monday to Friday, giving traders greater flexibility to manage short-term price risks. In addition, options on micro-sized Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts will add Tuesday and Thursday expiries to their current Monday, Wednesday, and Friday expiries. The new expirations will complement the monthly and quarterly expirations already available on all options on Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts.
The move, according to CME Group, is intended to provide market participants with greater precision and versatility in managing short-term Bitcoin and Ether price risk. It also comes at a time of high market volatility in the digital asset sector.
CME Group’s Bitcoin and Ether futures and options complex has already achieved a record average daily notional of more than $3 billion through Q1 2023. This means increased demand for liquid hedging tools from investors. customers. The complex has also reached other trading milestones, such as a record 11,500 contracts and an average open interest of 24,094 contracts for Bitcoin futures and options in Q1 2023. In addition, CME Group Bitcoin and Ether futures and options have seen increasing trading volumes, with a record 2,357 Bitcoin options contracts traded on March 22, and a record open interest (OI) of 14,700 contracts. on March 31.
CME Group introduced its first BTC futures contract in December 2017, followed by an ETH futures contract in February 2021. To meet the growing demand for cryptocurrency investment options, the exchange expanded its offering in 2022 to include futures on micro BTC and ETH. Additionally, it launched euro-denominated BTC and ETH futures when the euro was trading at par with the US dollar, which is currently worth around $1 per euro at press time.
At press time, ETH is trading at $2,085 and BTC at $29,503, falling below its previous high of $30,000.
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