CME Launching Options on Bitcoin Futures on Jan 13, 2020

CME Group has announced the launch date of the options on its Bitcoin futures contracts, where 1 BTC futures contracts represent 5 BTC. This new product, pending regulatory review, as stated by CME previously is coming in the Q1 of 2020 on January 13.

Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products says this has been in response to the “growing interest” in digital currencies and customer demand.

“Since the launch of our Bitcoin futures nearly two years ago, clients have expressed a growing interest in options as another way to hedge and trade in these markets,” McCourt said.

“We have worked closely with clients and the industry to establish a robust and increasingly liquid underlying futures market here at CME Group, and we believe Bitcoin options will now offer our customers greater precision and flexibility to manage their risk,” he added.

CME along with Cboe was the first one to launch the Bitcoin futures during the last bull run in Dec. 2017 after which BTC price tanked 84%.

Since its launch, market users “rapidly adopted” Bitcoin futures, recording an average daily volume of over 6,500 contracts in 2019 which is equivalent to about 32,500 BTC.

In these last almost two years, the platform conducted 22 successful futures expiration settlements.

Also, more than 3,500 individual accounts are trading on the platform.

Interestingly, about half, 47% of the Bitcoin futures trading volume on CME is from outside the US.