CME Exchange Launches Bitcoin Options Trading

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME Group) announced the start of trading on the market this Mondaybitcoin options. The launch took place at 18:00 Moscow time.

The asset of the new CME option is futuresBitcoin (BTC) contract launched by the same exchange at the end of 2017. One contract corresponds to five bitcoins and undergoes centralized clearing on the trading platform, which avoids counterparty risks. To determine the Bitcoin exchange rate, CME uses the data of several cryptocurrency exchanges.

According to the analytic firm Skew, options onBitcoin has been in high demand since the beginning of the year - by Friday the value of the trading volume exceeded $ 90 million. About 95% of transactions in bitcoin options last year took place on the Deribit derivative exchange. She recently announced that she will relocate the platform operator from the Netherlands to Panama. The reason was the entry into force of the Fifth EU Directive on combating money laundering.

Sunday on the launch of their ownBitcoin options were also reported by the FTX trading platform. Two hours after the announcement, CEO of the company Sam Bankman-Fried announced the achievement of a trading volume of $ 1 million. Earlier, FTX received support from the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

https://t.co/I1WTUFdJ9R is live ???

Liquidity is quickly growing, we already broke the $ 1 million in volume mark!

Read more here: https://t.co/lmE0Hm3E1v

- FTX — Built By Traders, For Traders (@FTX_Official) January 12, 2020

Ahead of the opening of CME Bitcoin options trading, a strategist at JPMorgan Chase & Co Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou noted an increase in interest in cryptocurrency derivatives among institutional investors.

“Over the past days there has been an increaseCME futures activity. The extraordinary level of activity probably reflects the high expectations of market participants in relation to option contracts. ”- he wrote.

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