In an effort to develop entry to Bitcoin (BTC) futures for retail traders, CME Group has launched a brand new, smaller futures contract known as Bitcoin Friday Futures (BFF).
In keeping with Bloomberg, the value of cash-settled BFF will likely be 1/fiftieth of full BTC, at present round $1,200 per contract. That is considerably cheaper than CME’s present Bitcoin futures costs, priced at Bitcoin’s full worth.
CME launches smaller “BFF” contract
Giovanni Viciioso, World Head of Cryptocurrency Merchandise at CME Group explained The rationale behind the enterprise highlights the rising demand amongst retail merchants for scalable funding autos.
Viciioso highlighted the success of CME’s present micro BTC and Ethereum Futurespointing to a surge in retail participation, with micro-bitcoin futures buying and selling quantity up 200% this 12 months in comparison with 2023.
Viciios acknowledged the present state of retail funding preferences and elaborated on the significance of the brand new BTC Friday futures in selling “elevated accessibility and affordability for traders.” retail contributors”.
CME is looking the brand new contract “BFF,” which stands for Bitcoin Friday Futures, but additionally playfully references the frequent “greatest mates eternally” abbreviation.
Versiso mentioned the pleasant moniker was intentional, noting, “When you concentrate on how a product we launch ought to have retail enchantment, I just like the BFF moniker.” New BFF contract pending regulatory reviewhowever is predicted to launch on September thirtieth.
Likewise, Nasdaq is looking for regulatory approval with the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) to launch choices contracts linked to a Bitcoin index.
Nasdaq goals to launch Bitcoin index choices
Reuters report On Tuesday, the change operator submitted paperwork to the U.S. SEC requesting choices on the CME CF Bitcoin Stay Index developed by CF Benchmarks to trace BTC futures and choices provided by the CME Group change.
Proposed Nasdaq Bitcoin Index Options It should present traders with a brand new method to achieve publicity and hedge towards value actions, complementing the suite of Bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and futures merchandise which have come to market in current months.
The rationale for Nasdaq’s submitting is that the SEC has not but accepted choices associated to any newly launched spot Bitcoin ETFs, together with BlackRock’s iShares BTC Belief ETF.
The change initially utilized for ETF choices shortly after the invoice was launched basic fund first appeared in January, however later withdrew and refiled the filings primarily based on “SEC suggestions.”
In the meantime, merchants have turned to Bitcoin-related alternate options, corresponding to leveraged ETFs, to get the choices publicity they need, based on Reuters. Nevertheless, Matt Hougan, CIO at asset supervisor and ETF issuer Bitwise, believes that having BTC index choices might be a helpful addition to the crypto derivatives market.
On the time of writing, the market’s largest cryptocurrency has fallen again to $61,600, down 3% in 24 hours, after hitting a one-month excessive of $65,000 on Sunday.
Featured photos from DALL-E, charts from TradingView.com
