Today, CME Group, which is among the world’s largest derivatives marketplaces, announced the introduction of a new “micro bitcoin” futures contract, which will start trading on May 3, pending regulatory approval.
A micro bitcoin futures contract will be one-tenth the size of a bitcoin, which would allow market participants to execute trading or hedging strategies in smaller denominations than were previously offered, with current bitcoin futures contracts trading in denominations of five bitcoin.
Since the launch of the bitcoin futures contract in December 2017, open interest and average daily volume has continued to increase, displaying the robust and growing demand for bitcoin exposure among institutions.
Year-to-date, 13,800 CME bitcoin futures contracts, equivalent to about 69,000 bitcoin, have traded on average each day, according to the micro futures announcement. The announced micro contracts open up exposure to bitcoin futures to a different class of retail traders, and enable those looking to create trading strategies based on smaller future contract sizing to do so.