CHICAGO, May 3, 2021 — Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME Group), one of the world’s leading derivatives exchanges, has announced the launch of Micro Bitcoin futures, further expanding its suite of crypto derivatives offerings.
Micro Bitcoin futures is one-tenth the size of one bitcoin. The smaller-sized contract will provide market participants – from institutions to sophisticated, active, individual traders – with one more tool to hedge their spot bitcoin price risk or execute bitcoin trading strategies in an efficient, cost-effective way, all while retaining the features and benefits of CME Group’s standard Bitcoin futures.
The new contract is cash-settled, based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate, which serves as a once-a-day reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of bitcoin.
“We are pleased to introduce this new contract at a time when we continue to see consistent growth of liquidity and participation in our crypto futures and options,” said Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products.
“At one-tenth the size of one bitcoin, Micro Bitcoin futures will provide an efficient, cost-effective way for a broad array of market participants – from institutions to sophisticated, active traders – to fine-tune their bitcoin exposure and enhance their trading strategies, all while retaining the benefits of CME Group’s standard Bitcoin futures.”
Micro Bitcoin futures will join CME Group’s growing suite of cryptocurrency derivatives, including Bitcoin futures and options and recently launched Ether futures.
“Cryptocurrency has never been more popular than it is today, and we are really happy to support the launch of the Micro Bitcoin futures contract,” said Steven Sanders, Executive Vice President, Marketing and Product Development at Interactive Brokers.
“This smaller sized contract will enable more of our sophisticated, individual clients to participate in the market, and will allow our institutional clients to more precisely manage their bitcoin exposure.”