The CME Group said the new event contracts on Bitcoin futures provide a limited-risk, highly transparent way for a wide range of investors to access the Bitcoin market via a fully regulated exchange.
On Monday, March 13, popular derivatives trading platform CME Group announced that they have commenced the trading of event contracts on Bitcoin futures.
In its statement, the CME Group said that this new product would be an addition to the company’s suite of 10 event contracts linked to its benchmark futures market.
These types of contracts offer payout based on specific events and are also known as prediction contracts or information contracts. They are short-term means that they expire daily and settle in cash. Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equity and FX Products at CME Group said:
“Our new event contracts on Bitcoin futures provide a limited-risk, highly transparent way for a wide range of investors to access the bitcoin market via a fully regulated exchange. These cash-settled, daily expiring contracts will further complement our existing suite of 10 event contracts tied to our benchmark futures markets, which have traded more than 550,000 contracts to-date. In addition, these new contracts will offer an innovative, lower-cost way for investors to trade their views on the up or down price moves of bitcoin.”
As said, the CME Group is offering event contracts for a growing number of its benchmark futures market. This includes gold, silver, crude oil, copper, natural gas, E-mini Nasdaq-100, E-mini S&P 500, E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average, E-mini Russell 2000, and euro-US dollar foreign exchange futures.
CME Group and Crypto
The CME Group has been among the early participants in the crypto space and launched and launched the world’s first Bitcoin futures contracts, settled in cash, back in December 2017.
Since then the CME Group has been unveiling new crypto derivatives products into the market. The Chicago Mercantile Group (CME) has also expanded its presence to overseas markets away from the US. Last year, it launched Bitcoin and Ether futures denominated in Euro.
Earlier this year, the CME Group joined hands with CF Benchmarks to launch three Metaverse reference rates in a move to expand its footprint in the Web3 space. These three Metaverse reference rates include Axie Infinity (AXS), Chiliz (CHZ), and Decentraland (MANA).
“As we continue to see a rising interest in Metaverse projects, CME Group, in partnership with CF Benchmarks, will expand its suite of regulated, non-tradable Cryptocurrency Reference Rates and Real-Time Indices to include three new Metaverse tokens,” said Giovanni Vicioso, CME Group Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products.
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