CME Group, which is one of the United States’ top derivatives exchanges, announced on Tuesday that the trading volume of recently launched micro Bitcoin futures surpassed 100,000 contracts within only the first six days of its launch.
“We are pleased to see strong customer adoption and support for our new Micro Bitcoin futures contract early on,” Tim McCourt, CME Group’s Global Head of equity index and alternative investment products, said in a statement.
CME launches the micro Bitcoin futures contracts on May 3 to generate demand for Bitcoin derivatives among small-time investors. According to the exchange, the micro contracts are ‘an efficient, cost-effective way for traders to fine-tune their bitcoin exposure and enhance their trading strategies’.
The contract mimics the exchange’s other Bitcoin futures contracts and is 1/10th of the size of a Bitcoin. The contracts are cash-settled and track the asset price from the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate that is the ‘once-a-day reference rate’ of the US dollar price of Bitcoin.
A Leader in Crypto Derivatives
CME first launched Bitcoin derivatives in December 2017, only a week after its rival Cboe launched the same. Though Cboe struggled with its Bitcoin product and eventually shut its offers, demand for CME’s Bitcoin futures contracts skyrocketed.
Additionally, the Chicago-based derivatives exchange expanded its cryptocurrency products with the launch of Bitcoin options and also Ethereum futures contracts.
“Together with our existing, full-sized Bitcoin futures, this new, smaller contract further strengthens our ability to help a broad array of clients – from institutions to sophisticated, active traders – to manage their bitcoin price risk,” McCourt added.
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