CME Group Will Launch Bitcoin Options Early In 2020

The latest cryptocurrency news show that the major derivatives marketplace CME Group recently announced that it will offer options on its Bitcoin futures contracts starting the first quarter of next year. Now that CME Group will launch a Bitcoin options market, we can definitely put it in comparison to its Windy City rival – the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE).

The Chicago-based company initially launched its futures product back in December 2017, which was the same time when CBOE launched its futures, too. An announcement on Friday showed that CME Group will launch the options trading – as a way to provide clients with “additional tools for precision hedging and trading.” The launch is currently pending regulatory review.

Tim McCourt who is the global head of equity index and alternative investment products at CME Group, was featured on many best cryptocurrency news sites for stating:

“Based on increasing client demand and robust growth in our Bitcoin futures markets, we believe the launch of options will provide our clients with additional flexibility to trade and hedge their bitcoin price risk. These new products are designed to help institutions and professional traders to manage spot market bitcoin exposure, as well as hedge Bitcoin futures positions in a regulated exchange environment.”

CME Group also detailed that since their 2017 launch, there have been more than 20 “successful” futures expiration settlements and more than 3,300 individual accounts trading the contracts. Close to 7,000 CME Bitcoin futures contracts are traded on average each day, the company stated.

Meanwhile, the coming altcoin news in March this year showed that CBOE abruptly changed the tack and halted its futures product. Now that CME Group will launch Bitcoin options and CME won’t (for now), this gives a massive advantage to CME as the sole provider of Bitcoin futures in the US.

However, it seems like CME will have a new rival from Monday. The rival is the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and is subsidiary Bakkt – both of which are preparing to offer a new BTC futures product. Unlike CME and its cash contracts, ICE will be offering a physically settled product which means that its customers will receive actual Bitcoin (BTC) instead of the cash equivalent.