Chicago Mercantile Exchange CME Group plans to launch micro-futures on Bitcoin with a nominal value of 0.1 BTC on May 3. This will expand traders’ access to the digital asset market. CME started trading Bitcoin contracts in December 2017. Then the size of one contract was set at 5 BTC. At the current exchange rate, this is almost $ 300 thousand, and only large investors can trade such contracts.
CME Group’s head of stock indices and alternative investment products, Tim McCourt, said that the “fractional” derivative based on bitcoin will be launched after regulatory approval. Small contracts will reduce the risk of traders in the spot market so that they can more effectively execute their trading strategies. McCourt added that users of the marketplace will have a wider selection of regulated Bitcoin futures.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) provided access to BTC-based derivatives trading a week ahead of CME, but suspended trading in 2019 due to low liquidity. Recently, the CBOE management announced that the exchange has not lost interest in digital assets and intends to resume trading in cryptocurrency derivatives.
CME noted that since the launch of the first Bitcoin futures contract, the instrument has become increasingly popular with institutional investors. McCourt believes their interest will continue to grow as the bitcoin bull market attracts more and more new investors.
As a reminder, in January 2020, CME Group launched Bitcoin options trading, and last month it became possible to trade ether futures on the exchange.
