While the SEC is currently deciding whether or not to approve the first Bitcoin spot ETF, and while waiting for precise regulation of digital assets, the world’s largest futures market, the CME in Chicago, announces the launch of two new micro futures on Bitcoin and Ethereum, which should be on the market on 28 March.
CME Group announced it plans to launch options on Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether futures on March 28, pending regulatory review. The new Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether options contracts will be one-tenth of their respective underlying tokens. https://t.co/3sWplDqYLv
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) March 1, 2022
Micro futures also for small traders
The launch of the news came with an official press release from the CME Group company, which published the news on its website, stating that the new options will be worth one-tenth of Bitcoin and ETH. In addition to banks, funds, family offices and other financial institutions, the new cryptocurrency-based products will also be offered to individual traders.
Genesis Global Trading, Cumberland and Akuna Capital, which specialize in cryptocurrency-related financial services, are expected to be the two companies chosen to provide liquidity for cryptocurrency investment vehicles.
All Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether options are European-style. And this means that, among their features, these options are only to be exercised in a futures contract on the last day of trading and therefore early exercise is expressly prohibited.
The new options will be added to the Bitcoin options launched two years ago with a size of five BTC.
How CME’s Bitcoin and Ethereum micro futures work
But how exactly do the new products tied to the two major cryptocurrencies work? The value of CME Micro Cryptocurrency options is tied to the price of the underlying Micro Cryptocurrency futures. Micro cryptocurrency futures, in turn, fluctuate in value relative to Bitcoin and Ether spot price movements, as the company explains in the release.
“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”,
said CME Group’s global head of equities and FX products, Tim McCourt.
“Micro options provide the targeted risk exposure that investors are looking for”,
said Joshua Lim, Head of Derivatives at Genesis Global Trading.
“We are excited to offer liquidity on the broad and growing family of CME Group cryptocurrency products”.
