By
Temitope Olatunji
April 24th, 2024
The Bitcoin euro futures contracts will be sized at 5 BTC per contract and the Ether euro futures contracts will be sized at 50 Ether per contract.
On Monday, August 29, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace the Chicago Mercantile Group (CME) launched its Bitcoin Euro futures and Ether Euro futures denominated in EUR in the market.
CME Futures Denominated in EUR
The Bitcoin euro futures contracts will be sized at 5 BTC and track the CME CF Bitcoin-Euro Reference Rate. Similarly, the Ether euro futures contracts will be sized at 50 ether per contract while tracking the CME CF Ether-Euro Reference Rate.
These are the one-day reference rates for the EUR-denominated prices of BTC and ETH. Speaking about the launch, Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equity and FX Products, CME Group said:
“The launch of these new futures contracts builds on the strong growth and deep liquidity we have seen in our existing US dollar-denominated Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts. Our new Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures will provide institutional clients, both within and outside the US, with more precise and regulated tools to trade and hedge exposure to the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.”
Growing Demand for Crypto Derivatives in Europe
There’s a growing demand for crypto derivative products currently in the European market, especially for the BTC and ETH futures contracts. CME first unveiled the plans of launching the Bitcoin futures and Ether futures in the European market earlier this month.
The launch comes just days ahead of the Merge upgrade wherein the Ethereum blockchain will transition from the current Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus model to a more scalable and efficient Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain platform.
Also, the launch of the BTC and ETH futures contracts comes just at a time as the Euro shares parity with the US dollar. Meaning 1 EUR is roughly worth 1 USD at this point. The launch of the BTC and ETH futures will give Europe-based institutional investors exposure to these cryptocurrencies in a regulated manner.
Recently, both BTC and ETH have come under selling pressure after the Fed’s Jackson Hole meeting last Friday. As per data from CoinShares, Bitcoin investment products witnessed outflows totaling $29 million. This was the third consecutive week of net outflows out of Bitcoin products.
The Ethereum investment products saw minor outflows at $1 million. As CoinShares reports that “despite improving confidence of the Merge occurring in September, investors are preferring to wait for it to occur before adding to positions”.