Average daily volume (ADV) in our Crypto futures and options suite continues to grow, reaching 198K contracts ($11.3B notional) in Q1 2025. Market volatility increased during the quarter, influenced by the new U.S. administration and the implementation of executive orders. The price of bitcoin and ether decreased from their January highs, ending the quarter down 12% and 46%, respectively, compared to the end of Q4 2024. Traders turned to our highly liquid Cryptocurrency products to manage risks amid these changes and  growing geopolitical tensions.

Cryptocurrency futures and options
ADV: 198K contracts, $11.3B notional
Open interest: 251K contracts, $21.8B notional

*Indicates record performance

Coming June 30, pending regulatory review, a fresh way to trade leading cryptocurrency and equity index markets with precision. Spot-Quoted futures are small-sized contracts based on the spot price. They require lower upfront capital and have long-dated expirations, allowing you to trade without monthly or quarterly futures rolls. Spot-Quoted futures will be available on bitcoin, ether and major equity benchmarks.

We launched capital-efficient futures on one of the leading cryptocurrencies with new SOL and Micro SOL futures. These CFTC-regulated contracts allow you to scale your exposure and manage risk with greater precision and flexibility.

Key features:

• More ways to trade: Expand your crypto trading strategies with the capital and operational efficiency of SOL and Micro SOL futures.
• Exposure without a wallet: Using futures that financially settle to CME CF Solana-Dollar Reference Rate, manage exposure to SOL without having to hold the cryptocurrency.
• Go long or go short: Enjoy more flexibility to express your view on the market.

In their first few weeks since launch, Solana (SOL) futures continue to gain traction, building strong liquidity with active quoting and robust trading activity amongst a diverse set of participants.

Options on Bitcoin Friday futures are now available, offering more ways to expand your crypto trading strategies. Here’s what makes this contract unique:

• Financially settled: BFF options are cash settled, offering exposure to bitcoin without requiring a physical position.
• Daily expirations: With contracts expiring Monday through Friday, you can better control your crypto trading strategy.
• Small contract size, greater precision: Fine-tune bitcoin exposure with contracts at 1/50 of a bitcoin, while enjoying the capital and operational efficiency of listed futures and options.

Trade at Settlement (TAS) on Ether and Micro Ether futures launched on March 17. In almost two weeks, over 24K contracts have traded, demonstrating the importance of offering the marketplace flexibility in how to trade futures. TAS allows traders the ability to buy or sell a futures contract at a spread to its yet-to-be-determined daily settlement price. TAS on Bitcoin or Micro Bitcoin futures contracts traded nearly 121K contracts in Q1.

As of March 31, Crypto.com was added as a constituent exchange for CME CF Bitcoin and Ether Benchmarks. These now represent 98% of global BTC-USD trading and 92% of global ETH-USD trading. Effective April 14, CME Group and CF Benchmarks will launch additional cryptocurrency pricing products designed to provide clients with transparent, robust, reliable reference rates. Reference rate variants will be published each day including weekends and bank holidays for the following: 

New York variant, to be published shortly after 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET):

• CME CF Litecoin-Dollar Reference Rate - New York Variant (LTCUSD_NY)

APAC variant, to be published shortly after 4:00 p.m. Hong Kong/Singapore time:

• CME CF Litecoin-Dollar Reference Rate – APAC Variant (LTCUSD_AP)
• CME CF Solana-Dollar Reference Rate – APAC Variant (SOLUSD_AP)
• CME CF Cardano-Dollar Reference Rate – APAC Variant (ADAUSD_AP)
• CME CF Chainlink-Dollar Reference Rate – APAC Variant (LINKUSD_AP)
• CME CF XRP-Dollar Reference Rate – APAC Variant (XRPUSD_AP)

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.