CME Group plans to launch Bitcoin Friday futures, a new contract, on September 30.
These smaller contracts aim to draw in retail investors who might find the current offerings or the price of Bitcoin too high.
BFF contracts, priced at one-fiftieth of a bitcoin, will be cash-settled, which means they won’t settle in cryptocurrency.
According to a press release, they will expire every Friday, giving traders a more convenient and adaptable option for controlling their exposure to Bitcoin.
Every Thursday, the BFF contracts will be offered for trading on Fridays, enabling players to trade the two closest Fridays at any given moment.
By regularly monitoring the spot price of Bitcoin, this new product seeks to assist investors in reducing weekend price volatility.
Earlier on August 27, Nasdaq announced that it would publish options trading for Bitcoin indexes that will track the cryptocurrency price as represented by the CME CF Bitcoin Real-Time index.
The global head of cryptocurrency products at CME Group, Giovanni Vicioso, stressed that these contracts let consumers and institutional traders adjust their exposure to Bitcoin on a regulated exchange.
In order to improve market efficiency and liquidity during U.S. trading hours, the contracts will settle to the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate New York Variant, ticker symbol “BRRNY,” which is also a benchmark utilized by spot Bitcoin ETFs. Giovanni Vicioso stated:
By settling to the BRRNY, the benchmark used by leading spot bitcoin ETFs, traders will also benefit from growing liquidity and the ability to more efficiently capture market moves during U.S. hours”
Supporters of the introduction include Interactive Brokers, Plus500, and Webull, who have emphasized the product’s affordability, adaptability, and attractiveness to a wide spectrum of investors, namely retail investors.
After the success of its current and Micro Bitcoin futures products, CME Group continues to extend its cryptocurrency derivatives offerings with this launch.
Following the SEC’s approval of spot Bitcoin ETF trading earlier this year, numerous sizable financial institutions filed to launch their spot Bitcoin ETFs.
