CME Group today launched euro-dominated Bitcoin and Ethereum futures on its derivatives marketplace. 

The new product will complement the dollar-denominated cryptocurrency counterparts and is sized at five Bitcoin and 50 Ethereum per contract, the company said in its announcement Monday. CME Group is the world’s biggest derivative exchange.

In derivatives, “futures” are a type of contract where an investor has to buy or sell the underlying asset at a given price at the expiration date. 

Tim McCourt, global head of equity and FX products at CME Group, said: “The launch of these new futures contracts builds on the strong growth and deep liquidity we have seen in our existing U.S. dollar-denominated Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts.”

The crypto derivatives market is huge: $174 billion in contracts was traded on exchanges in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. 

The announcement shows that there is still strong interest in the crypto market—especially with Ethereum’s upgrade just around the corner. 

Earlier this month, the Chicago-based derivatives exchange announced its plan to launch options on Ethereum futures on September 12—just days before the long-awaited merge.

Ethereum’s merge is the cryptocurrency’s much-talked about move from proof of work to proof of stake, which is expected to make its network faster, more scalable and more energy efficient. 

Ethereum
ETH
-17.50%$1,568.40
24H7D1M1YMAX
Created with Highcharts 10.3.3Mar 18Mar 20Mar 22Mar 24Mar 26Mar 28Mar 30Apr 1Apr 3Apr 5Apr 7Apr 9Apr 11Apr 13Apr 15$1400$1600$1800$2000$2200$1200
Price data by
ETH price

Ethereum developers last week said in an official announcement that the move to proof of stake will take place between September 10 and 20.

Daily Debrief Newsletter

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.