In this report
Subscribe to get the latest updates

Looking back at 2024: what a year it has been

As 2024 began to wind down, the crypto market continued to rally with bitcoin up 108% and ether up 41% YoY. At CME Group, our Crypto product suite not only had a record year, but also record performance in Q4, driven by record December trading. Traders turned to the deep,  around-the-clock liquidity of our market to manage their risk as various catalysts occurred throughout the year.

2024 recap in numbers: 

  • 29.4M contracts were traded worth over $1.7T notional.

  • Average daily volume (ADV) of 116K contracts (+203% YoY).

  • Average daily open interest (OI) of 157K contracts (+75% YoY), or $14.6B notional.

  • Over 26K unique accounts trading.

Since November 2023, our Bitcoin (BTC) futures  have been the leading source of liquidity. 2024 was a record year where average daily open interest exceeded $10B, more than four times greater than 2023. Open interest reached a record high of $23B on December 17, with a record $15.9B transacted on December 20. 

The strength of our Bitcoin and Micro Bitcoin (MBT) futures products paved the way for the introduction of our smallest bitcoin contract, Bitcoin Friday futures (BFF)

BFF was the most successful Cryptocurrency product launch at CME Group, with 31,498 contracts traded (nearly $40M notional) on day one. This contract offers greater accessibility and shorter durations while capturing moves during the U.S. trading hours.

Ether was not to be ignored. While the year started with muted volume, our futures were the go-to product for risk management as spot Ether ETFs began trading mid-year and as volatility returned to the market toward year-end. In 2024, nearly 12M contracts traded between Ether (ETH) and Micro Ether (MET) futures, a total value of $256B. 39% of the ether notional volume traded was transacted in Q4 2024, as the crypto markets reacted to the U.S. election results.

With interest in the ethereum network growing toward year-end, the Ether/Bitcoin Ratio, or the number of bitcoin needed to buy one ether, saw its highest single-day increase of 11% on November 25, a jump not seen since the beginning of January 2024. Overall, however, bitcoin outperformed ether for most of the year, resulting in the ratio trading at its lowest levels since launch.


Momentum in 2024: 258K+ TAS on Bitcoin futures contracts traded

Trade at Settlement (TAS) on Bitcoin futures proved to be a valuable tool for traders throughout 2024. TAS allows market participants to enter a trade at a spread to the yet-to-be-determined daily settlement price of Bitcoin or Micro Bitcoin (MBT) futures contracts. This enables clients to transact at or near the futures settlement price, making it particularly useful when replicating an index. In 2024, over 258K contracts were traded via the TAS mechanism, with nearly 50% of those transactions occurring in Q4 2024.


Empowering traders: the rise of BTIC transactions

Basis Trade at Index Close (BTIC) is another tool that traders embraced in 2024. BTIC provides market participants the ability to trade futures contracts at a fixed spread or basis to a reference price, such as the close of a known benchmark index. This functionality is available for all Cryptocurrency futures against the various reference rates. Over 4K BTIC transactions occurred throughout 2024 on Bitcoin and Ether futures.


Driving growth: institutional interests fuels LOIH and volume across the suite

Large open interest holders (LOIH) reached new all-time highs along with trading volumes in 2024. A combined record 664 was reached the week of December 17 across the Bitcoin, Micro Bitcoin, Ether and Micro Ether futures. Average LOIHs in 2024 was up 33% YoY, once again pointing to our deep, actionable liquidity. The increase in LOIH suggests growing client interest for regulated solutions to manage bitcoin and ether risk.


Q4 2024 volume and open interest

Cryptocurrency futures and options
ADV: 196K contracts, $10B notional
Open interest: 229K contracts, $20.8B notional

Futures Product  Q4 ADV  Q4 Avg Daily OI  Dec ADV Dec Avg Daily OI
BTC 17.9K*  36.0K*  18.9K 38.2K
ETH 9.2K* 12.1K* 12.4K* 19.1K*
MBT 79.5K  40.8K  86.1K 55.2K*
MET 75.9K*  94.2K* 116.4K* 158.3K*

*Indicates record performance


Robust benchmarks pave the way

CME Group, in partnership with CF Benchmarks, continues to expand and enhance price transparency and discovery through the real-time indices and reference rates. In 2024, several existing cryptocurrency benchmarks were expanded to include New York and APAC variants while Internet Computer and XRP joined the CME CF suite of benchmarks. 

Most recently, the following were added: 

  • The NY variant on the CME CF Polkadot Reference Rate was added on December 2, 2024.

  • Bullish Exchange was added as a constituent exchange for the CME CF Bitcoin Reference rate and Real-time Index as of December 30, 2024.

Now with 24 cryptocurrencies, our suite of CME CF Reference Rates and Real-Time Indices provide pricing data across more than 93% of the investible cryptocurrency market capitalization.

Footnotes

Source CME Group. Data as of December 31, 2024 unless otherwise indicated.

LOIH: A Cryptocurrency futures LOIH is defined as any entity that holds at least 25 contracts of the respective futures.



All examples in this report are hypothetical interpretations of situations and are used for explanation purposes only. The views in this report reflect solely those of the author and not necessarily those of CME Group or its affiliated institutions. This report and the information herein should not be considered investment advice or the results of actual market experience.

CME Group is the world’s leading derivatives marketplace. The company is comprised of four Designated Contract Markets (DCMs). 
Further information on each exchange's rules and product listings can be found by clicking on the links to CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX.

© 2025 CME Group Inc. All rights reserved.