More Than 100,000 CME Micro Bitcoin Futures Trade In First Week

CME Group saw more than 100,000 micro bitcoin futures traded in the first week of its offering, demonstrating appetite for bitcoin products.

Major derivatives marketplace CME Group has seen more than 100,000 micro bitcoin futures traded in the first six days following the contract’s launch, the operator told Reuters.

CME introduced the new style of contract in March, which is one-tenth the size of a bitcoin, designed to allow market participants to trade and hedge in smaller denominations than they could with existing bitcoin futures, which traded in denominations of 5 BTC. Open interest and average daily volume for CME’s standard bitcoin futures offering has increased fairly steadily since they were introduced in December 2017, implying there would be demand for the micro version.

“Together with our existing, full-sized Bitcoin futures, this new, smaller contract further strengthens our ability to help a broad array of clients, from institutions to sophisticated, active traders, to manage their bitcoin price risk,” Tim McCourt, CME’s global head of equity index and alternative investment products, told Reuters.

The offering and its initial popularity came as BTC has fallen significantly from its all-time high price of about $65,000, reached on April 14. Still, the asset’s incredible rally over the last year and staying power about $50,000 seems to have convinced many within the legacy financial realm that it is worthy of their portfolios.

Yesterday, reports surfaced that Swiss investment bank giant UBS would soon be offering cryptocurrency exposure, for fear of falling behind competitors. And earlier this month, the CFO of the world’s largest hedge fund joined NYDIG to focus on bitcoin offerings, while Goldman Sachs began offering bitcoin derivatives.