Crypto turbulence drives demand for CME’s regulated products, setting new volume records

CME Group said Monday that its cryptocurrency futures and options suite hit an all-time daily volume record of 794,903 contracts on Friday, Nov. 21. The previous record of 728,475 contracts was set on Aug. 22.

The leading derivatives marketplace has seen its average daily volume of 270,900 crypto contracts ($12 billion in notional) rise 132% year-over-year, with average open interest (OI) of 299,700 contracts ($26.6 billion in notional) up 82% year-over-year.

"Amid ongoing market uncertainty, demand for deeply liquid, regulated crypto risk management tools is accelerating," Giovanni Vicioso, global head of cryptocurrency products at CME Group, stated in a release. "Clients across the globe continue to turn to our benchmark Cryptocurrency futures and options to hedge their risk and pursue opportunities in this complex environment, with both large institutions and retail traders driving record activity across our product suite."

CME's micro futures and options crypto product suite hit a new daily volume record of 676,088 contracts on Friday, including record micro Bitcoin futures and options volume of 210,347 contracts, according to CME Group. The firm offers investment products for BTC, ETH, SOL, and XRP. 

It's been a painful month for the market, highlighted by U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs reporting $1.22 billion in net outflows last week, which brings their four-week cumulative outflows to $4.34 billion. Overall, global crypto ETPs are in the midst of their third-worst rut since 2018, according to CoinShares.

So far through the fourth quarter, CME Group's average daily volume of 403,200 crypto contracts ($14.2 billion in notional) is up 106% from the prior year, with average OI of 493,700 contracts ($35.4 billion in notional) up 117%. The firm launched options on Solana and XRP futures in October.

CME Group plans to move its cryptocurrency futures and options to continuous 24/7 trading early next year.