Media: CME Group is studying the possibility of launching BTC spot trading

The Chicago exchange has already surpassed Binance in bitcoin futures trading volume

16.05.2024 - 08:20

3 min

What’s new? The world’s largest futures exchange, CME Group, is planning to launch spot trading in bitcoin amid growing demand for the asset from financial managers, the FT reports, citing sources. According to them, the Chicago-based group is already in talks with traders interested in trading BTC on a regulated platform.

Material by FT

What else is known? So far this plan has not been approved and CME itself declined to comment, but in the case of its implementation, the presence of institutional players in the traditional financial sector in the crypto market will significantly strengthen. Since January this year, more than a dozen spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on the first cryptocurrency from major investment companies, including BlackRock and Fidelity, have already been traded on US stock exchanges.

Crypto investment company CoinShares reported 216% year-over-year revenue growth

In March, CoinShares bought Valkyrie, which is the issuer of the spot BTC ETF BRRRR

Launching BTC spot trading on the CME, where bitcoin futures are already available, would make it easier for traders to base trade. This is a common strategy that involves taking a long position in an underlying asset and a short position in its derivative to capitalize on its small price divergence. The CME already does most of the basis trading in another asset, US Treasuries.

CME has been one of the main beneficiaries of renewed institutional interest in BTC, it has overtaken leading crypto exchange Binance as the world’s largest bitcoin futures market where traders seek to capitalize on the asset’s volatility.

CME, which caters mainly to hedge funds and financial firms, has about 26 000 open positions worth about $8,5 billion on its Chicago market. The figure has more than doubled since last year.