Depending on the outcome of a regulatory assessment, CME Group, the world’s largest and most varied derivatives marketplace, said today that it would extend its crypto derivatives products with the launch of Micro Ether futures on December 6, subject to regulatory approval.
Micro Ether futures, which are one-tenth of one ether in size, will offer a more effectual and cost-effective path for a variety of market market participants participants – from institutions to advanced, aggressive, market participants – to hedge their spot ether price volatility or more quickly execute ether trading plan, all while preserving the features and advantages of CME Group’s larger-sized Ether futures contracts.
According to Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products at CME Group, “Since the debut of Ether futures in February, we have observed a consistent increase in liquidity in these contracts, particularly among institutional traders.”
“A micro-sized contract is needed to render this market even more accessible to a wider variety of players. During the same period, the price of ether has increased by more than 100% since these contracts were established, driving demand for a micro-sized contract. Micro Ether futures will provide traders at CME Group with even more flexibility and accuracy in how they trade Ether futures in a transparent, regulated, and efficient way.”
Micro Ether futures will be added to CME Group’s expanding array of cryptocurrency derivatives, which already includes the newly announced Micro Bitcoin futures, which have had more than 2.7 million contracts traded since they were first introduced in May. Over 675,500 Ether futures contracts (equal to about 33.8 million ether) were traded since the beginning of the trading day.
Furthermore, Micro Ether futures will add to CME Group’s wide portfolio of more than 20 Micro products, which have collectively traded over 1 billion contracts from the time of launch. In addition, the new contract will be cash-settled, and it will be based on the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate, which acts as a once-a-day reference rate for the price of ether in U.S. dollars. CME will offer micro ether futures, which will be subject to the regulations of the exchange.
