Sized at one-tenth of one ether, Micro Ether futures will provide an efficient, cost-effective way for a range of market participants - from institutions to sophisticated, active, individual traders - to hedge their spot ether price risk or more nimbly execute ether trading strategies, all while retaining the features and benefits of CME Group’s larger-sized Ether futures.

“Since the launch of Ether futures in February, we have seen steady growth in liquidity in these contracts, especially among institutional traders,” said Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products. “At the same time, the price of ether has more than doubled since these contracts were introduced, creating demand for a micro-sized contract to make this market even more accessible to a broader range of participants. 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.”

Micro Ether futures will join CME Group’s growing suite of cryptocurrency derivatives, including recently launched Micro Bitcoin futures which have traded more than 2.7 million contracts since launched in May. Launch-to-date, more than 675,500 Ether futures contracts (equivalent to about 33.8 million ether) have traded.

In addition, Micro Ether futures will complement CME Group’s diverse slate of more than 20 Micro products, which, together, have traded more than 1 billion contracts since their introduction.

The new contract will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate, which serves as a once-a-day reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of ether. Micro Ether futures will be listed on and subject to the rules of CME.