Derivatives marketplace CME goes live with euro-denominated bitcoin, ether futures

CME Group, a derivatives marketplace, has launched bitcoin and ether futures denominated in the euro.

The offerings were first announced earlier this month and complement the existing dollar-denominated futures CME launched in 2021. 

“Designed to match their U.S. dollar-denominated counterparts, Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures contracts will be sized at five bitcoin and 50 ether per contract,” CME said in a statement Monday. “These new contracts will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Bitcoin-Euro Reference Rate and CME CF Ether-Euro Reference Rate, which serve as once-a-day reference rates of the euro-denominated price of bitcoin and ether.”

While derivatives volumes have dropped amid the fall in crypto prices, cryptocurrency derivatives trading on centralized exchanges rose 13% to more than $3 trillion last month from June, according to researcher CryptoCompare. The derivatives market comprised 69% of total crypto volumes in July compared to 66% in the previous month.

Volumes for CME bitcoin futures have trended downward since peaking in October. Last month, CME bitcoin futures volumes were a reported $38 billion, down from a record of more than $108 billion, according to data compiled by The Block Research.

CME’s ether futures volume reached nearly $16 billion in July, compared to more than $34 billion in November, per the Data Dashboard.

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