CME Group has hired a director from BGC Partners to work on the US exchange group’s growing crypto derivatives market.

Priyanka Jain joined CME Group in New York this month as a director focused on equity and crypto currency products.

Giovanni Vicioso, global head of cryptocurrency products at CME Group, said: "We continue to see strong momentum across our cryptocurrency complex, with record open interest of more than 29,000 bitcoin futures contracts in Q2.”

Vicioso added: “We welcome Priyanka Jain to the team and look forward to continuing to serve our global clients as they look to manage their risk in the ever-evolving crypto marketplace."

Jain joined CME Group from BGC Partners where she worked for three years as the US group’s digital assets strategy lead and launched BGC’s Digital Assets desk which offers high-touch brokerage services.

Before joining BGC in 2021, Jain worked in business development at AiX, the artificial intelligence broker, and as an equity derivatives broker at Square Global Markets and Sigma Broking after starting her broking career at BGC in 2015.

Previously, Jain worked for marketing and advertising agencies including Ogilvy & Mather, and DDB.

Jain’s appointment will boost CME’s already growing crypto derivatives segment. The US group, which became in 2017 one of the first regulated exchanges to launch bitcoin futures, has seen its crypto derivatives market growing in recent years.

CME Group’s bitcoin future traded 1.82 million lots in the first six months of this year, according to FOW Data, which was an increase of 34.5% on the first six months of 2023.

The CME bitcoin future’s open interest was 29,000 lots at the end of June which was up 180% on the same time last year, according to FOW Data.

CME Group began in March to offer bitcoin and ether basis trade at index close (BTIC) futures settlement in Asian trading hours, marking the latest offering from the US group.

CME and BGC are set to compete in the vast US rates futures market from September 3 when BGC plans to launch futures based on the US risk-free rate SOFR, a sector dominated by CME.