Ever since the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) announced it was ending its bitcoin futures products back in March, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) has seen a huge influx of bitcoin derivatives volumes. During the second week of May, CME’s bitcoin futures touched a milestone when it surpassed 33,000 contracts ($1.3 billion notional value) in one day. In another instance, CME’s open interest for its bitcoin derivatives positions smashed an all-time record high of 5,190 contracts on May 28.
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CME Group’s Bitcoin Futures Markets Break Records Throughout April and May
There’s been a lot of action happening with bitcoin futures products specifically stemming from CME Group. Last March, Cboe decided to announce the end of its bitcoin futures markets, stating that the product saw low trade volumes. Although Cboe said at the time that it would ponder offering cryptocurrency derivatives products in the future. The last contract for bitcoin futures on the CBOE exchange will be settled on June 19th and according to an email response from Cboe’s Suzanne Cosgrove, the exchange is still assessing the situation. “Cboe is assessing its approach with respect to how it plans to continue to offer digital asset derivatives for trading,” Cosgrove remarked on June 11. Cboe’s decision to end its bitcoin futures seems to have caused far more demand for CME Group’s crypto derivatives offering.
Last May turned out to be a record month for CME Group’s bitcoin futures with close to 300,000 contracts settled. Moreover, June volumes are currently starting to pick up and so are contracts in July. News.Bitcoin.com reported on how CME Group’s bitcoin derivatives saw $1.3 billion notional value (
