This announcement came just three days whenever Ethereum made the switch from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). While the CME's ether possible alternatives product is being prepared for regulatory approval, the business has revealed that the options contract will be measured at 50 ether each contract using the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate. This information was provided by the company.

The CME Group Announces the Launch of Ethereum Options

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, often known as CME Group, announced the organization's capacity to market ethereum derivative instruments on September 9, 2022, which was three days before The Merge. CME disclosed that the company is now offering micro-sized transactions for bitcoin and ether options in addition to its existing options for bitcoin (BTC) and ether.

"These new contracts deliver one ether futures, sized at 50 ether per contract, and based on the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate," the derivatives marketplace said on Thursday. "The CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate serves as a once-daily reference rate of the United States dollar price of ether," the statement continued. Tim McCourt, the global head of stock and FX products at CME, made the observation on Thursday that the new ether options contracts are an addition to the company's already existing array of crypto derivatives products.

According to a statement released by McCourt, "The launch of these new options contracts builds on the extraordinary growth and deep liquidity we have seen in our current Ether futures." To date, more than 1.8 million contracts have been traded in the Ether futures market. The executive from CME continued by saying:

We continue to see market participants turn to CME Group in order to manage the risk associated with the price of ether as we get closer to the highly anticipated Ethereum Merge next month. Our new ether options will provide a wide array of clients additional flexibility and improved precision to manage their ether exposure ahead of market-moving events.

CME Group is going to become a participant on a number of exchanges, including as Deribit, Okex, Bit.com, and Huobi, which currently provide customers with the ability to trade Ethereum options. Out of the four exchanges that list ETH options, the volume of ether alternative investments reached $11.38 billion in July, with Deribit capturing $10.86 billion of that total. In compared to the open interest data linked with Huobi, Okex, and Bit.com, Deribit's market share of ether options open interest is significantly larger, making it the dominant player in this industry.

CME Group is the second largest in terms of bitcoin options open interest, with $441 million reported on August 17, behind only Deribit, which is the leader in the market of bitcoin opportunities open interest. Deribit also outshines CME in terms of bitcoin options. In a manner analogous to this, CME is the third largest when it comes to the volume of bitcoin options, but Deribit is in the lead. When it comes to bitcoin options, Okex is able to capture a fraction of a percentage point more volume than its competitors.

TP ICAP Digital Assets and Akuna Capital are providing support for the roll out of CME's ether options with the introduction of the new CME ether options. Sam Newman, the head of brokering at TP ICAP, made these remarks during the official statement: "TP ICAP Digital Assets is thrilled to support CME Group in the rollout of its full-sized Ether options contract." Customers of TP ICAP have been waiting impatiently for the introduction of this larger-sized Ether option, which will join the company's existing successful Micro Ether option.