CME officially launches Ethereum futures

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME) tweeted on Sunday morning that it will launch Ethereum (ETH) futures at 6 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, with the first trading day being February 8.

In mid-December, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) announced that it would launch Ethereum futures. These futures will be settled in cash based on CME's ETH-USD reference rate. Each contract represents 50 ETH, currently worth about $78,000, and the minimum transaction size is 5 contracts.

Companies providing liquidity for CME’s Ethereum futures include BlockFi, Galaxy, Genesis, CoinShares and NYDIG, some of which also provide liquidity for the exchange’s Bitcoin futures and options products.

As early as 2019, Heath Tarbert, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), predicted that Ethereum-based derivatives would eventually be listed. At the time, it was reported that Tarbert believed that Ethereum belonged to the category of commodities. Ethereum is currently the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market value and daily trading volume. Since 2020, CME Bitcoin futures contracts have traded an average of 8,560 lots per day (equivalent to about 42,800 Bitcoins).

CME was originally a non-profit organization founded in 1898. It was listed on NASDAQ in 2002 and completed its IPO. In 2007, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange acquired the Chicago Board of Trade (mainly trading agricultural products, treasury bond futures and futures options). In 2008, CME acquired the New York Mercantile Exchange (mainly trading crude oil, natural gas, fuel oil and other energy futures). Since then, it has become the world's largest futures exchange with the most diversified trading commodities.