CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, will expand its crypto derivatives offering on December 6 with the launch of Micro Ether futures.
At one-tenth, the size of an Ether, Micro Ether futures will offer an efficient and cost-effective option to a range of market participants, from institutions to sophisticated, active retail traders. They can use it to hedge their Ether spot price risk or execute Ether trading strategies more quickly without sacrificing the features and benefits of CME Group's larger Ether futures.
Ethereum Price Rise and Demand
Since the launch of Ether futures in February, a steady increase in liquidity in these contracts has been observed, especially among institutional traders. At the same time, the price of Ether has more than doubled since the launch of these contracts, which has sparked demand for a micro contract to make this market even more accessible to a wider range of participants. Micro Ether futures are designed to provide even more choice and precision in the transparent, regulated and efficient trading of Ether futures at CME Group.
Micro Ether futures complement CME Group's growing suite of cryptocurrency derivatives, including the recently launched Micro Bitcoin futures, which have traded more than 2.7 million contracts since their launch in May. More than 675,500 ether futures contracts (equivalent to approximately 33.8 million ethers) have traded since launch. In addition, the Micro Ether futures complement CME Groups more than 20 Micro products, which have collectively traded more than 1 billion contracts since their launch.
The new contract will be cash-settled and based on the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate, which serves as the daily reference rate for the U.S. dollar price of Ether. Micro Ether futures are listed on the CME and are subject to its rules.
CME Group Marketplace
As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios and analyze data - empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and seize opportunities. CME Group's exchanges offer the broadest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indices, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals.
The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex® platform, fixed income trading through BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading through the EBS platform. It also operates CME Clearing, one of the world's leading providers of central counterparty clearing. With a range of pre- and post-trade products and services that support the entire lifecycle of a trade, CME Group also offers optimization and reconciliation services through TriOptima and trade processing services through Traiana.
