CME Group to Expand Bitcoin and Ether Options Expiries on May 22

Through the new contracts, expiries will be available every day of the business week, Monday through Friday.

April 17, 2023 - CME Group, a derivatives marketplace, announced plans to expand its suite of cryptocurrency options across its standard- and micro-sized Bitcoin and Ether contracts beginning on May 22, pending regulatory review. 

"We are pleased to offer these new options contracts to provide market participants with greater precision and versatility in managing short-term bitcoin and ether price risk," said Giovanni Vicioso, CME Group Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products.

"Against a backdrop of heightened market volatility in the digital asset sector, we continue to see clients turn to a trusted, regulated venue like CME Group for reliable and efficient cryptocurrency risk management products."

New expiries for options on Bitcoin and Ether futures will be offered with Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday expirations. Options on micro-sized Bitcoin and Ether futures will add Tuesday and Thursday expiries to their existing Monday, Wednesday and Friday contracts. All of these new offerings will complement the existing monthly and quarterly expiries available across all Bitcoin and Ether options on futures contracts.

"CME Group continues to innovate and lead in the institutional crypto options on futures market," said Paul Eisma, Head of Options Trading at XBTO. "By completing the short end of the implied volatility surface with the addition of the new Tuesday, Thursday Micro options contracts and weekly standard size contracts, institutional market makers such as XBTO can deliver precise liquidity to market participants of all sizes who trade and hedge cryptocurrency exposures spanning every business day of the upcoming week for the first time."

Through Q1 2023, CME Group's Bitcoin and Ether futures and options complex has achieved a record daily average notional of more than $3 billion. Additional trading highlights include:

• Bitcoin futures and options Q1 2023 ADV exceeded 11,500 contracts and open interest (OI) averaged a record 24,094 contracts.
• A record 2,357 Bitcoin options contracts were traded on March 22, and OI reached a record 14,700 contracts on March 31.
• More than 4,600 Ether options contracts have traded since their September 2022 launch. A record 311 Ether options contracts traded on Feb. 22, and a record OI of 1,800 contracts was reached on March 24.