Ethereum futures trading was launched on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) last week, and the opening price of the February contract has risen by 5% to $1,747.75 in less than two weeks.
Tim McCourt, Global Head of Stock Index and Alternative Investment Products of CME Group, believes that the initial activity of CME’s Ethereum futures market is very good, but there will be a long time before the product is fully established and mature enough to support options and other derivative products. The way to go.
CME Group is not the first company to launch Ethereum futures products. In 2018, Crypto Facilities, a digital asset trading service provider based in the United Kingdom, announced the launch of Ethereum futures products. Last year, the U.S. crypto derivatives platform ErisX also announced the same news.
The significance of the launch of CME Ethereum futures is that it is the first financial settlement Ethereum futures product, and it is also a product regulated in the United States, which means that any futures contract expires in US dollars for equivalent transactions. Non-Ethereum spot. According to McCourt, “In financial settlement futures contracts, you can bypass the entry barriers of various wallets and other asset custody tools. However, many institutional clients’ custody solutions require a combination of different types of encrypted assets. A huge amount of work has been increased, and financial settlement has solved all problems.”
James Putra, vice president of product strategy at TradeStation Crypto, said that the launch of Ethereum futures on CME, the world’s largest derivatives exchange platform, is a key move to introduce new institutional participants to the market. TradeStation Crypto’s sister company, TradeStation Securities, recently started to provide customers with an entry point to trade CME Ethereum futures contracts on its platform.
McCourt also said that in his view, the rising demand for Ethereum futures products reflects people’s growing interest in things built on Ethereum, especially ongoing projects such as Ethereum 2.0 and decentralized finance. (DeFi) and stablecoins.
Author/ Translator: Jamie Kim
Bio: Jamie Kim is a technology journalist. Raised in Hong Kong and always vocal at heart. She aims to share her expertise with the readers at blockreview.net. Kim is a Bitcoin maximalist who believes with unwavering conviction that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency – in fact, currency – worth caring about.