Yesterday, CME Group, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, announced the launch of its newest product: Micro Ethereum Futures.
CME Group and Micro Ethereum Futures
To expand its crypto derivatives product offering, CME is adding Micro Ethereum Futures.
The newest member of the CME Group cryptocurrency product family has arrived. Micro Ether futures are available for trading. https://t.co/bJoZWA7qZz
— CME Group (@CMEGroup) December 6, 2021
“The newest member of the CME Group cryptocurrency product family has arrived. Micro Ether futures are available for trading”.
Micro Ethereum Futures (MET) is a limited size Ethereum Futures contract, equal to 1/10th of ETH, which are made available primarily to small investors to provide them with precise exposure to the Ethereum market.
In its description, CME Group says that the new METs can also be used to optimize trading strategies, such as managing risk in a scaled-down way, but also to add the crypto derivative product as a diversification in one’s investment portfolio.
In this regard, Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products, commented:
“The launch of Micro Ether futures underscores the significant growth and liquidity we have seen in our cryptocurrency futures and options. Sized at one-tenth of one Ether, 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”.
A new crypto product
Mirco Ethereum Futures joins the crypto derivatives products offered by CME Group including Micro Bitcoin Futures, Bitcoin Futures, Bitcoin Futures Options and Ethereum Futures.
At the beginning of May 2021, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange had already launched Micro Bitcoin Futures.
They too were 1/10th of a BTC in size and cash-settled, like the previous ones, based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate which serves as a once-a-day reference rate for the US dollar price of BTC.
By contrast, it was only last February 2021 that CME, the world’s largest options and futures exchange, launched Ethereum futures.
Ethereum (ETH): price above $4000 and protocol developments
Over the past 24 hours, the price of Ethereum (ETH) has dropped as low as $3,900, returning above the $4,000 mark soon after and worth $4,374 at the time of writing.
ETH has been trying to stay above $4,000 for more than a month now, rarely slipping below the threshold, but also hitting new ATH – All Time Highs that have been close to $5,000.
In terms of project development, Ethereum is also facing its transition to Ethereum 2.0.
At the moment, the community has been asked to proceed with testing the merge between its traditional Ethereum blockchain and the Beacon Chain, to move from being a PoW to a PoS, and begin the process of lowering transaction fees.
The post CME Group launches Micro Ethereum Futures (MET) appeared first on The Cryptonomist.
