CME Announces Date of Ethereum Options Launch

The Chicago-based CME Group has announced that it will launch Ethereum options on Sept. 12, just three days before the much-anticipated merge upgrade.
 

The new product will be sized at 50 ETH per contract. It will track the price of the second largest cryptocurrency and the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate.

Tim McCourt, global head of equity and FX products, says that the company's existing Ethereum futures have experienced "significant" growth. Roughly 1.8 million contracts have changed hands to date, according to McCourt.

 According to data provided by crypto analytics company Coinglass, CME Group is in seventh place by total Ethereum futures open interest (behind Binance, FTX, OKEx and some other crypto trading platforms).

CME Group introduced Ethereum futures in February 2021 after rolling out Bitcoin futures in late 2017. In November, the trading giant announced the launch of micro Ether futures.

The world's largest derivatives exchange also announced the rollout of micro-sized Bitcoin and Ether futures in late March.

Ether is trading at $1,876 on the Bitstamp exchange at press time. Its rally has seemingly lost its steam ahead of the much-anticipated Merge upgrade, which will mark the transition of the second most popular blockchain to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.

As reported by U.Today, former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes recently opined that the best time to short Ethereum was on the cusp of the Merge upgrade with the help of put options.

In other news, American crypto exchange Gemini recently introduced Ethereum staking services for U.S. users.