CME Group to launch micro Ethereum futures in December

One of the largest derivatives markets in the world, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group on Tuesday announced its plans to launch Ethereum-based micro futures by December 6.

“Since the launch of Ether futures in February, we have seen steady growth in liquidity in these contracts, especially among institutional traders,” said Tim McCourt, CME Group’s global head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products. “Micro Ether futures will offer even more choice and precision in how they trade Ether futures in a transparent, regulated and efficient manner at CME Group.”

CME eyes December for micro ETH futures launch

According to the announcement, each share of the ETH-based derivatives product will be sized at one-tenth of one Ether. This way, institutional investors looking for ways to invest in the industry would be able to expose their portfolio to investments on the second-largest crypto asset by market cap.

“Micro ether futures will provide an efficient, cost-effective way for a range of market participants – from institutions to sophisticated, active, individual traders – to hedge their spot ether price risk or more nimbly execute ether trading strategies, all while retaining the features and benefits of CME Group’s larger-sized ether futures,” the press statement reads in part.

It was revealed that the contracts would be cash-settled and it would be “based on the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate” —this is the daily reference price of Ethereum in US dollars.

Interestingly, this is not the first crypto-related micro-sized contract CME is handling. In February, the company began trading Ether futures and in May, the derivatives platform announced the launch of micro Bitcoin futures which saw a record number of trading within its first week of trading. Since then, CME has been able to successfully trade over 2.7 million contracts.

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