CME Group reports record crypto volumes for Q4

CME Group, a US derivatives exchange, reported record cryptocurrency trading volumes during the fourth quarter of 2024, according to its Feb. 12 earnings call. 

In Q4 2024, CME clocked an average daily trading volume of approximately $10 billion for crypto derivatives, a more than 300% increase from the year prior, CME said. 

The exchange said 2025 is off to a strong start, with cryptocurrency contracts notching the highest-ever volumes for the month of January. 

Overall, crypto derivatives were among the “contracts that we saw the largest increases this year,” Lynn Martin, CME’s chief financial officer, said during the call.

While “[t]here’s an appetite out there” for CME to list more types of crypto products, “it’s going to be really important for us to consult and work with the [US Securities and Exchange Commission] to make sure we get their comfort level about what’s deemed a security and what is not,” CME CEO Terry Duffy added. 

In January, CME announced plans to list options tied to its bite-sized Bitcoin Friday futures amid mounting interest in cryptocurrency derivatives among retail investors.

Related: CME to launch options on Bitcoin ‘Friday’ futures

Competitive dynamics

CME is among the US’s largest derivatives exchanges, with revenues of approximately $6 billion in 2024. It lists futures contracts and options tied to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) but has not yet listed contracts for other digital asset types. 

The exchange faces competition from Coinbase, which launched a derivatives exchange in 2021 that lists futures contracts on a wide array of cryptocurrencies, including memecoins such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and Bonk (BONK).

It also faces an impending rivalry from trading platform Robinhood, which rolled out Bitcoin futures in January and plans to launch Ether futures later this year. 

Cryptocurrency futures are surging in popularity, with open interest on Bitcoin futures cresting $60 billion as of Feb. 12, according to data from CoinGlass.

Futures contracts are standardized agreements to buy or sell an underlying asset at a future date. Options are contracts granting the right to buy or sell — “call” or “put” in trader parlance — an underlying asset at a certain price.

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