February Equity Index Product Review

• Equity Index futures and options volume averaged 6.9M contracts per day in February 2023, +4% vs. Jan-23
• Equity Index open interest averaged 9.7M contracts per day for the month of February 2023, +10% vs. Jan-23

Bitcoin futures and options: Futures trading in February ADV was 11.2K (+33% vs. Jan-23) and open interest averaged 16.2K. Over 106K Bitcoin options have traded since their launch in early 2020, February average OI was 8.4K (+16% vs. Jan-23), an average daily value of over $994M.

Micro Bitcoin futures: Launched May-21, Micro Bitcoin futures have traded nearly 7.8M contracts since. The futures are 1/10 of a Bitcoin and settled to the CF Bitcoin Reference Rate. February ADV was 10.6K (+48% vs. Jan-23) and OI averaged 11.8K (+45% vs. Jan-23).

Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether options: CME Group introduced options on Micro Bitcion futures and options on Micro Ether futures starting March 28. The options are right-sized at 1/10th of their respective tokens. Nearly 464K contracts traded since launch across the various expiries with trades submitted from EMEA, APAC and North America.

Learn more here:

• Landing page
• Fact card
• FAQ

Ether futures: CME Group launched Ether futures on February 8, 2021. The contract is cash-settled and based on the regulated CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate. Nearly 2.7M CME Group Ether futures contracts have traded since launch (equivalent to 135M Ether). February ADV was 6.5K (+20% vs. Jan-23) and open interest averaged 4.6K.

Ether options: Launched September 12, Ether options offer another way to efficiently manage ether exposure at a 50x multiplier. Nearly 3.6K contracts have traded since launch, equivalent to nearly 178K ether. Learn more about Ether options here:

• Landing page
• Fact card
• FAQ

Micro Ether futures: Launched December 2021, nearly 5.4M contracts have traded since launch. ADV in February was 11K (+3% vs. Jan-23) and OI averaged 18.3K.  Sized at 1/10 of one ether, the contract provides an efficient, cost-effective way to manage exposure to one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Enjoy the same features of the larger Ether futures (ETH) at a fraction of the size, settled to the regulated CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate.

Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures: CME Group launched Bitcoin Euro & Ether Euro futures on August 29. The new contracts are designed to match that of their US-denominated counterparts at 5 bitcoin or 50 ether per contract. The contracts will settle to the respective CME CF Bitcoin-Euro Reference Rate (BTCEUR_RR) and CME CF Ether-Euro Reference Rate (ETHEUR_RR). Discover more information on Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures here:

• Landing page
• Bitcoin Euro
• Ether Euro
• FAQ
• Fact card

Micro E-mini futures: Over 1.97B Micro E-mini Equity Index futures contracts have traded since launch. Combined ADV in February was 2.6M.

Learn more here: 

• Landing page

Micro E-mini options: CME Group launched Micro E-mini options on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 indices in 2020. Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 options continue to gain ground against their Micro E-mini S&P 500 option counterpart in terms of volume contribution. Since launch over 6M contracts have traded, February ADV was 17.8K (+7% vs. Jan-23). For more information, please visit the following:  

• Landing page
• FAQ

E-mini Tuesday and Thursday options: CME Group launched E-mini S&P 500 Tuesday and Thursday options April 25. The options offer more opportunities to manage short-term equity exposure with more choices to trade throughout the week. The contracts complement the existing suite of Quarterly, End-of-Month, and Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Weekly options. These options settle into liquidity E-mini S&P 500 futures. February ADV was 252K (+8% vs. Jan-23) between both contracts with over 42.8M contracts traded since launch.

Learn more:

• Landing page

Launched October 3, now trade E-mini Nadaq-100 Tuesday and Thursday options. Nearly 418K contracts have traded since launch with a February ADV of 5.9K. Visit the resources here:

• Landing page
• FAQ

Launched February 27, you can now trade E-mini Russell 2000 Tuesday and Thursday options.

Learn more: 

• Landing page

E-mini S&P 500 option Blocks: Participation in ES options blocks continues to grow, allowing market participants to execute large trades with greater efficiency. Over 27M ES options blocks have traded, with February ADV at 73K contracts (+9% vs. Jan-23). NQ options became block eligible starting January 2022, with a minimum block threshold of 60 contracts. Nearly 19.5K contracts have traded since eligibility.

AIR Total Return futures: Launched Sep-20, S&P 500 AIR TRFs offer clients a listed alternative to trading OTC swaps. Client adoption continues to gain momentum as the UMR deadlines approach. ADV in February was 5K (+63% vs. Jan-23) and OI averaged a record 259K (+4% vs. Jan-23) for the month. Russell 2000 AIR TRF is starting to trade alongside Russell 2000 Dividend futures.

E-mini S&P Europe 350 ESG futures: Launched May 2021, the new E-mini S&P Europe 350 ESG Futures are cash-settled to the S&P Europe 350 ESG index. The index is Pan-European, covering developed markets across over 15 different countries. The four largest individual country weights as of April 8, 2021 are UK 23.58%, France 18.08%, Switzerland 17,16% and Germany 14.90%. The index is based on the robust ESG index methodology, same as the one applied to S&P 500 ESG index and is right sized in terms of number of constituents at around 230. Since launch, over 3.8K futures have traded. Please visit the following for further detail:

• Landing page
• FAQ
• Fact card

TOPIX futures: Launched November 21, USD-denominated TOPIX index futures provide market participants a new way to capture benchmark Japanese equity exposure while minimizing FX risk. This is the first USD-denominated TOPIX futures contract, which complements the existing yen-denominated TOPIX contract and provides trading opportunities in different currencies. Achieve capital efficient exposure by saving on potential margin offsets against other Equity Index futures at CME Group. Traders can utilize the dynamic quanto spreading opportunities between the yen- and USD-denominated TOPIX contracts created by the JPY/USD exchange ratefu. Access trading through outrights electronically on Globex, capture the certainty of the close using Basis Trade at Index Close (BTIC), or bilaterally negotiate EFP transactions. Learn more here:

• FAQ
• Fact card
• Landing page