CME Adds Euro-Denominated Ethereum Futures as Merge Approaches

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