CME sees Ether futures open interest jump 80%

CME Group’s open interest in Ether futures rose by nearly 80% in August compared with a 29% hike in bitcoin open interest, according to data provider CryptoCompare.

CME's open interest in Ether futures rose 78.3% last month to $613m (£443m) while open interest in bitcoin futures increased 28.9% to $1.6bn, according to data published on Tuesday.

The total open interest of futures referencing Ether across all exchanges rose 41% to $5.6 billion in August as the total open interest in futures referencing bitcoin increased 22.4% to $12.4bn. 

The changes mean CME has pulled ahead of other exchanges to be the clear open interest market leader in both bitcoin and Ether futures.

Overall, crypto derivatives trading volumes increased by 37.8% to $3.4 trillion in August, meaning derivatives market share (compared to spot markets) was 56.6% for the month, just under the eight-month high for market share in July.

CME was a first mover in the crypto derivatives space and launched its bitcoin future in 2017. The exchange has seen adoption of its contract grow, and traded more than 3 million contracts in the seven months to the end of July, according to FIA data. That represents a 157% increase on the same period in 2020.

The Chicago-based group launched a Micro contract in May as part of a wider push to harness retail demand for exchange traded derivatives. The exchange had traded 1.5 million of the new contracts by the end of August, part of a general growth in the segment for contracts that trade at a fraction of the minimum size required for traditional contracts.

CME Group has said it plans to launch basis trading on its bitcoin and ether futures at the end of this month.

Deutsche Boerse-owned Eurex this week launched Europe’s first regulated bitcoin derivative, a sign that European exchanges are negotiating hurdles to develop derivatives on the burgeoning exchange traded products market.