CME Group to Launch Cash-Settled Micro Bitcoin Futures

“We’ve had a lot of demand from customers to introduce a smaller size bitcoin contract,” said Tim McCourt, CME Group global head of equity index and alternative investment products.

share

key takeaways

  • CME Group will launch cash-settled micro bitcoin futures worth 1/10 of one bitcoin in May.
  • Smaller contracts will allow for greater hedging and exposure opportunities for individual and institutional investors.

CME Group will launch cash-settled micro bitcoin futures contracts worth one-tenth of one bitcoin on May 3, the company announced Tuesday. 

“We’ve had a lot of demand from customers to introduce a smaller size bitcoin contract,” said Tim McCourt, CME Group global head of equity index and alternative investment products. 

“When you look at the recent rise in the price of bitcoin, the current contracts have really gotten too large for some, either in terms of the precision that folks need with managing or allocating capital to cryptocurrency, or they could be hedging some of their other crypto related strategies, whether it be options or in the underlying spot market.” 

CME Group’s current bitcoin futures contracts, which launched in 2017, have five bitcoin and are about $300,000, McCourt said. The micro bitcoin futures contracts will be around $6,000, allowing smaller investors to get involved in the digital asset space. 

The new contracts will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate, which is  a daily reference rate of the US dollar price of bitcoin.

“With the size of the contract continuing to grow as a function of the rising price of bitcoin, we think this will help us grow even further as we allow more market participants to scale their positions, to deploy different types of strategies, as well as bring new participants,” said McCourt. 

The Chicago-based exchange launched ethereum futures contracts earlier this year, further establishing itself as one of the most pro-cryptocurrency regulated exchanges in the US. On average, 767 ether contracts have been traded each day since their launch in February, which is equivalent to 38,400 ether. 

CME Group bitcoin futures trading volumes have steadily increased in the past several years, especially as bitcoin has risen in price and popularity. So far in 2021, 13,800 CME bitcoin futures contracts have traded on average each day, equivalent to 69,000 bitcoin. 

“We have seen great signs that the growth we’ve been able to manifest over the last three-plus years will certainly lend itself to what we hope will be a successful introduction of the contracts in May,” said McCourt.

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (8).png

Research

Meta-aggregators like Titan and Kamino Swap improve price execution for users, making the Solana swapping landscape more competitive. Jupiter has incorporated meta-aggregation features into its latest routing engine to keep users on its front end (own the user, own the flow). At large, teams are treating swaps as a commoditized complement, offering incredibly cheap or free swaps to own the end-user and increase demand for high-margin product offerings (multi-product DeFi). On another note, the divergence in the concentration of aggregator volume between DEXs suggests increased specialization at the DEX layer by asset type.

article-image

Investors moved to safe assets like the US dollar and gold, but bonds faltered

article-image

The Amex offers up to 4% bitcoin back, but the deal is a bit ironic considering crypto’s goals

article-image

Short answer: Subnets are now cheaper to bootstrap than a Celestia rollup

article-image

Few things are more cypherpunk than keeping keys in your brain wallet

article-image

Many community banks and credit unions feel like they missed the fintech craze — and they don’t want to miss stablecoins

article-image

BlackRock COO Rob Goldstein noted that the firm had been looking into crypto since 2017