The FX futures market has long intrigued the traditional OTC trader, viewing it as an interesting parallel marketplace, but without a clear understanding about why or how they should participate in it. Yet over the last few years the growing trend of futures adoption has arguably become too big to ignore.
2025 was a record-breaking year for our FX futures suite, with growth across almost every key metric like record open interest, the number of large open interest holders and positioning from asset managers. Crucially, this expansion welcomed over 130 new clients who were first-ever FX futures traders. This growth story is underpinned by a range of catalysts, including potential balance sheet optimization for banks, margin and tax efficiencies[1], and the removal of the need for ISDAs or bilateral credit lines to trade.
Asset manager gross notional in FX futures
Absolute numbers also illustrate the size of the market behind these records. Throughout 2025, over 1,000 firms were active in our FX futures market, with over $43 trillion cleared, more than 50 currency pairs supported (>20 of which are non-USD crosses), average daily volumes of $85.7 billion and a single day high of over $292 billion.[2]
The large majority of this activity is enabled by the robust and deep liquidity available in our central limit order book (CLOB), which is widely accepted to be a foundational source of market price discovery and risk transfer across a range of currencies, including all of the G7 pairs and the Mexican peso. Key developments have, however, taken place to further connect the futures CLOB to the OTC market, which are vital for the continuation of this growth trajectory.
Marrying the OTC market with FX futures
As the FX futures market continues to grow, so does client demand to more closely align it with the OTC market. Recent enhancements to our FX futures market include the addition of new currency pairs with SGD, THB and IDR added in 2025, and the provision of regionally relevant snapshots for daily valuations, including 4:00 p.m. London, 4:00 p.m. New York and 3:00 p.m. Tokyo time. Yet the ability to truly bridge the OTC and FX futures markets is arguably the most important development for the overall efficacy of the market to be a truly viable venue for both OTC traders and futures traders, and we have made a concerted effort on three key initiatives to achieve this.
EFRPs
EFRPs[3] allow clients to trade in an OTC manner and lean on OTC liquidity while holding a centrally cleared FX futures contract at the end of the transaction. Two similar, but distinct workflows, exist: one that allows existing OTC trades to be backloaded or novated into cleared futures, and the other that allows clients to trade on OTC liquidity but immediately hold the resulting position as a centrally cleared FX futures.
Volumes in EFRPs grew +197% year-on-year, with activity in 2025 across over 30 currency pairs. Multiple banks now provide fully automated front-to-back workflows alongside “high touch” voice workflows for clients preferring that mechanism.
Average daily volume (USD-equivalent notional) in FX EFRPs
FX Link and FX Spot+
FX Link and FX Spot+ are two “on screen” marketplaces that directly and atomically link the OTC spot market with our FX futures market.
FX Link provides a firm, no-last-look price for FX swaps risk - with an OTC spot FX transaction as the near leg and FX futures as the far leg. This marketplace enables traders to either seamlessly move risk from spot to futures or vice versa. It’s a critical tool for liquidity providers to optimize their funding costs while providing STIR traders truly firm pricing for FX swaps, with liquidity separated from credit, which doesn’t exist anywhere else in the market.
FX Spot+ is the newest addition to our FX ecosystem, allowing a resting order in the futures market to be displayed and traded as a spot order, and in reverse allowing an OTC trader to rest a spot order and have that displayed to the entirety of the more than 1,000 firms active in the FX futures market.
This unique new marketplace was specifically designed for OTC traders to have the ability to access the deep and complementary pool of FX futures liquidity while viewing, trading, booking and settling transactions in OTC spot format. Now OTC traders can distribute their spot liquidity to the very large and hugely diverse ecosystem of FX futures traders.
Since its launch, FX Spot+ has seen single trading days exceeding $8 billion. Over 60 firms have traded, including 35 banks that were previously not participants in the FX futures market.
FX Spot+ and FX Link are two clear examples of how our initiatives are bringing the FX market together like never before.
The bottom line
Our expansive and growing futures marketplace offers diverse use cases and has become more accessible than ever. Today, with multiple transactional methods ensuring seamless integration, clients can comfortably manage their FX risk. Our ambition is for OTC FX and FX futures to be a "marriage made in heaven," moving beyond their discrete identities and becoming a new market reality.
Footnotes
[1] CME Group Inc. and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.
[2] All data from 2025 trading activity and supplied by CME Group.
[3] EFRPs are subject to Rule 538.
Disclaimer
Exchange traded derivatives and cleared over-the-counter (“OTC”) derivatives are not suitable for all investors and involve the risk of loss. Exchange traded and OTC derivatives are leveraged instruments and because only a percentage of a contract’s value is required to trade, it is possible to lose more than the amount of money initially deposited. This communication does not (within the meaning of any applicable legislation) constitute a Prospectus or a public offering of securities; nor is it a recommendation, offer, invitation or solicitation to buy, sell or retain any specific investment or service.
The content in this communication has been compiled by CME Group for general purposes only and is not intended to provide, and should not be construed as advice. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs, and you should obtain appropriate professional advice before acting on or relying on the information set out in this communication. Although every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information within this communication as of the date of publication, CME Group assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions and will not update it. Additionally, all examples and information in this communication are used for explanation purposes only and should not be considered, investment advice, the results of actual market experience, or the promotion of any particular products or services. All matters pertaining to rules and specifications herein are made subject to and superseded by official Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (“CME”), the Chicago Board of Trade, Inc. (“CBOT”), the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (“NYMEX”), and the Commodity Exchange, Inc. (“COMEX”) rulebooks or, as applicable, the respective Rulebooks of CME Group’s certain other subsidiary trading facilities. Current rules should be consulted in all cases including matters relevant to contract specifications.
