TL;DR Breakdown
- Nearly 400 Ether futures contracts were traded on CME in just the first day.
- The exchange now offers futures products for the two-top cryptocurrencies.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) recorded an impressive number of Ether futures contracts traded on the first day of launch. The crypto derivative product had just launched on the exchange on Sunday. However, nearly 400 ETH futures contracts were trading on the opening day. This indicates that institutions are also interested in the second-largest cryptocurrency. At the moment, CME now supports futures contracts for Bitcoin and Ether.
Over $30 million Ether futures contract traded on CME
The Managing Director at CME, Tim McCoury, confirmed the record, precisely saying that 388 Ether futures contracts were traded on the derivatives exchange on the opening day. Given that each contract constitutes 50 ETH, a total of 19,400 ETH were traded that day. Following today’s price at $1,737, these coins will be worth $33.6 million. “The response to Ether has been overwhelming,” McCourt commented.
A further glance at CME Group’s Ether futures page showed that there were 228 open interests in the derivative product as at the 8th of January. McCourt said he’s impressed with the launch figures. He also admitted that there’s also a growing number of requests for more product offerings amid the launch of the Ether futures contract. “The addition of Ether, along with our liquid Bitcoin futures and options, will create new opportunities for a broad array of clients,” McCourt said in a press statement.
The ETH futures market
At the time of writing, the open interest in ETH futures is up by more than 13 percent, according to ByBt. The open interest in the product globally is worth $5.88 billion (3.38 million ETH). Binance dominates the market with about 822.71K in open interest. Other leading derivative exchanges include Bybit, Huobi, and OKEx.
