The world’s largest derivatives marketplace, CME Group has launched options on Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether futures, after receiving a regulatory green light from the SEC.
The options which further expand its suite of cryptocurrency derivatives offerings and are already live as per the company’s website seek to offer investors more ways to ‘manage exposure to the top cryptocurrencies and optimize their crypto trading strategies.
Traders can now leverage the strength and liquidity of the new Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether futures ‘to efficiently hedge market moving with greater precision and flexibility. The new suite also offers exposure to traders of all sizes.
The new options trading debut comes after the Chicago-based introduced micro bitcoin futures in May 2021, before adding Ether in November. Although previous reportings show that today’s launch has always been in the works, earlier this month, CME officially announced introducing the offerings at hand, citing increased demand for more utilities within its crypto derivative offerings.
“At less than a year old, nearly 5.2 million combined Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether futures contracts have changed hands,” Tim McCourt, global head of equity and FX Products at CME Group had said in the statement on March 1. “micro-sized options will enable traders of all sizes to efficiently hedge market-moving events with greater precision and flexibility or fine-tune their cryptocurrency market exposure.”
Under the new suite of offerings, clients will be able to trade one-tenth of their chosen token size, and as well as be able to ‘express long- or short-term views with a choice of monthly as well as Monday, Wednesday, and Friday weekly options expiries.’
The launch of these micro-sized options builds on the significant growth and liquidity we have seen in our Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether futures,” said Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity and FX Products following the launch. “Sized at one-tenth of their respective underlying tokens in size, these contracts will offer a wide range of market participants – from institutions to sophisticated, active, individual traders – greater flexibility and precision to manage their exposure to the top two cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.”
CME which is the largest bitcoin futures platform after overtaking Binance in October has recorded tremendous growth since venturing into crypto. In its fourth-quarter 2021 report, The firm recorded a jump in average daily volume. Currently, the firm handles roughly 20.5 million contracts daily which is up 26% compared to the fourth quarter of 2021.
