CME Group To Roll Out Micro Bitcoin, Ether Options

Set to go live on March 28, the options contracts will be one-tenth the size of their underlying tokens

article-image

Source: Shutterstock

share

key takeaways

  • Offerings will allow traders to hedge market-moving events with greater precision, according to CME Group’s global head of equity and foreign exchange products
  • CME Group began offering micro bitcoin and micro ether futures contracts last year

Derivatives exchange CME Group is set to roll out options on micro bitcoin and ether futures this month in a move to give more traders exposure to such instruments with nominal capital.

The options contracts, set to launch March 28, will be one-tenth the size of their underlying tokens. CME introduced bitcoin futures contracts, sized at five bitcoin, in 2020.

Futures require the buyer to purchase an asset at a certain date, while options give an investor the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an asset before the contract expires.

CME Group began offering bitcoin futures contracts in 2017 and launched cash-settled micro bitcoin futures contracts worth one-tenth of one bitcoin last year. The derivatives marketplace moved in November to add micro ether futures as liquidity in ether futures grew steadily with investors. 

About 5.2 million micro bitcoin and micro ether futures contracts have changed hands in less than a year, according to Tim McCourt, CME Group’s global head of equity and foreign exchange products.

“Building on the strength and liquidity of the underlying contracts, our 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,” McCourt told Blockworks in an email.

As traders favor short-dated options to manage risk, according to McCourt, the launch will feature Monday, Wednesday and Friday weekly expiries for micro crypto options.

Executives at Genesis Global Trading, Cumberland and Akuna Digital Assets said their firms will provide liquidity.

“We believe that options on these contracts will allow existing market participants greater flexibility when seeking cost-efficient exposure as well as opening the market to new participants who prefer the more granular sizing,” Akuna CEO John Harris said in a statement.

The launch comes after CME Group launched two new reference rates for bitcoin and ether Monday that provide a daily reference rate of the US dollar price of the two digital assets, published at 4 pm ET.

“We’re continually talking with and listening to clients and market participants about new ways to help them manage cryptocurrency risk,” McCourt said, declining to share specific future crypto products the company has in the works.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 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.

recent research

kamino cover.jpg

Research

Kamino has solidified its position as the leading money market on Solana and is emerging as a DeFi bluechip. Although DeFi competition is fierce, Kamino has kept iterating on its product to provide the best-in-class UX, paired with a robust risk management framework and battle-tested infrastructure. Given the rollout of Kamino Lend V2, the protocol may scale aggressively over the coming months, penetrating previously untapped markets in Solana DeFi.

article-image

Why that the bull market might not start until 2025

article-image

August’s annual headline figure came in at 2.3% after an upward revision Thursday, so things are moving in the right direction 

article-image

MSTR’s stock price was roughly $248 at 2 pm ET Thursday

article-image

Ever since rates came off zero and fiscal deficits exploded, markets have started paying close attention to how the government is funding itself

article-image

Solana memecoins are collectively at an all-time high

article-image

Optimistic rollups like Optimism, Arbitrum and Base are seeing rapid adoption relative to zk rollups