The global markets company Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has seen considerable demand since launching its options contracts in the wake of the firm’s bitcoin futures. On the first day of swaps, CME’s bitcoin options saw 55 contracts ($2.3 million). By the end of the week, the firm’s bitcoin options volume more than doubled with 122 contracts ($5.3 million) sold.
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CME Bitcoin Options See Steady Growth
Regulated crypto derivatives products have seen strong demand and just recently the forex marketplace CME launched options on the firm’s bitcoin futures contracts. The foreign exchange company announced its bitcoin options offering in mid-September as CME executive Tim McCourt said there was “increasing client demand” for such products. McCourt also remarked that the options would provide “clients with additional flexibility to trade and hedge their bitcoin price risk.”
Following the announcement, the ICE-owned Bakkt derivatives marketplace launched bitcoin options in the U.S., alongside opening cash-settled bitcoin futures in Asia. CME’s options started trading on January 13 and the marketplace saw a grand total of 55 options contracts or $2.3 million sold that day. As news.Bitcoin.com’s CME options report mentioned in November, each contract represents 5 BTC.
The derivatives markets researchers from Skew.com have also recorded the options action on CME since the day the products launched. “Just added CME to our bitcoin options open interest radar,” the researchers tweeted. On January 17, Skew wrote that CME’s open interest for bitcoin futures was “up 100% since the start of the year.” Following the 55 contracts on opening day, CME bitcoin options saw 122 contracts worth $5.3 million on January 17.
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