The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange, has announced on Tuesday that it’s planning to introduce Micro Ether futures. The new Ethereum-derivative product will provide institutional investors and individual traders exposure to the cryptocurrency.
CME announced that it is set to launch a new Micro Ether futures contract. Although the new investment product is pending regulatory approval, the company expects to launch it as soon as December 6. The Micro Ether futures will be one-tenth the size of one Ethereum.
The highly-awaited Ethereum futures contracts debuted in February this year as the price of ETH hovered around $1,670. According to Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products, the price of the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has “more than doubled” since these contracts launched.
McCourt now believes the new Ether-based product will lure more investors to the digital asset market by allowing smaller investments.
“Since the launch of Ether futures in February, we have seen steady growth in liquidity in these contracts, especially among institutional traders. Micro Ether futures will offer even more choice and precision in how they trade Ether futures in a transparent, regulated, and efficient manner at CME Group.”
CME also said the new contract will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Ethereum Reference Rate.
The CME announcement comes as the Ethereum price hits a fresh all-time high, after climbing past its previous peak.
ETH has risen over 3.95% in the last 24 hours to reach above the $4,500 level. In doing so, it set an all-time high of $4,530.69, according to CoinGecko. ETH has seen its market cap swell to $531 billion.
The token underpins the Ethereum network, the predominant blockchain utilized for decentralized finance applications, and the burgeoning non-fungible tokens (NFTs) market. Multi-billion-dollar companies such as Visa have hopped on the NFT train, alongside sports superstars like Tom Brady in recent months.
Suffice to say, it’s been a great year for Ethereum — not just in terms of coin value but for network functionality as well. Altair, a crucial upgrade to the Ethereum Network, went live last Wednesday. Altair is the first technical upgrade of the Beacon Chain since it was launched in December 2020. Beacon Chain is primal because it introduces a proof of stake (PoS) model to the Ethereum ecosystem.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has warned crypto executives to switch focus to collective security and…
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao warned in a recent interview with CoinDesk that traditional banks may…
Ripple CEO Bradley Garlinghouse is pushing back against the idea that the company’s growing RLUSD…
According to a recent report from a local Chinese publication, Chinese regulators have moved against…
Wall Street staged a sharp recovery following the U.S. midterm elections, reversing earlier losses as…
ADA continues to gain popularity in tokenized real-world assets and institutional blockchain adoption. Petrobras’ move…