CME Group to Launch Ether/Bitcoin Ratio Futures on July 31

CHICAGO, June 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced plans to launch Ether/Bitcoin Ratio futures on July 31, pending regulatory review.

"Historically, ether and bitcoin have been highly correlated; however, as the two assets have grown over time, market dynamics may affect the performance of one more than the other, creating relative value trading opportunities," said Giovanni Vicioso, CME Group Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products. "With the addition of Ether/Bitcoin Ratio futures, investors will be able to capture ether and bitcoin exposure in a single trade, without needing to take a directional view. This new contract will help create opportunities for a broad array of clients looking to hedge positions or execute other trading strategies, all in an efficient, cost-effective manner."

The Ether/Bitcoin Ratio futures will be cash-settled to the value of CME Group Ether futures final settlement price, divided by the corresponding CME Group Bitcoin futures final settlement price. The new contract will follow the same listing cycle as CME Group Bitcoin futures and Ether futures contracts.

"The launch of CME Group Ether/Bitcoin Ratio futures further expands the marketplace for institutions and sophisticated investors who want digital asset exposure in a regulated environment," said Jason Urban, Global Head of Trading at Galaxy. "We're excited to support this product, which will appeal to investors looking to take advantage of changes between the two biggest digital assets by market capitalization. We commend CME Group's ongoing commitment to developing innovative offerings essential to building an enduring ecosystem for this asset class."

"The launch of Ether/Bitcoin Ratio futures completes the currency triangle allowing market makers such as XBTO the ability to arbitrage synthetically, for the first time, all three futures legs: the BTC/USD and ETH/USD dollar legs, and the ETH/BTC cross," said Paul Eisma, Head of Options Trading at XBTO. "CME Group's innovative, regulated product will help increase volumes, reduce spreads, and give institutional crypto market participants a vehicle to express relative value between BTC and ETH."

"This new ETH/BTC cross-cryptocurrency contract from CME Group should allow investors more flexibility when hedging positions in non-dollar offshore markets," said Brooks Dudley of Marex Capital Markets, Inc. "This marks another important advancement for CFTC-regulated cryptocurrency derivatives."

For more information on cryptocurrency options, please visit: www.cmegroup.com/ebr.  

As the world's leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals.  The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex® platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform.  In addition, it operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing. 

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and, E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec and EBS are trademarks of BrokerTec Europe LTD and EBS Group LTD, respectively. The S&P 500 Index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC ("S&P DJI"). "S&P®", "S&P 500®", "SPY®", "SPX®", US 500 and The 500 are trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC; Dow Jones®, DJIA® and Dow Jones Industrial Average are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. These trademarks have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Futures contracts based on the S&P 500 Index are not sponsored, endorsed, marketed, or promoted by S&P DJI, and S&P DJI makes no representation regarding the advisability of investing in such products. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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SOURCE CME Group