Ether Futures settling to CF Benchmarks' Ether Dollar Reference Rate start trading

CME Ether Futures will become available for trading on Monday 8th February 2021

Overview

CME Ether Futures will be the second cryptocurrency contract the exchange has launched since CME Bitcoin Futures began trading in December 2017. Like CME Bitcoin Futures, CME Ether Futures will be settled to an index that is devised, published and administered by CF Benchmarks. That index is the CME CF Ether Dollar Reference Rate (ETHUSD_RR). It is a benchmark index price that aggregates trade data only from Ether-USD markets operated by exchanges that conform to the CME CF Constituent Exchange Criteria. ETHUSD_RR is published once each day at 4pm London time and has been published each day since its inception on 14th May 2018.

CF Benchmarks is the only regulated cryptocurrency Benchmark Administrator. It is authorised under UK FCA Benchmark Regulation, a regime that, post-Brexit, is equivalent to European Union Benchmark Regulation. The CME Group is regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. This end-to-end oversight will make CME Ether Futures the only fully regulated Ether market in the world. Consequently, participants can have complete confidence in its integrity, regulatory compliance, transparency and accuracy.

Key features of CME Ether Futures (ticker: ETH)

• Settlement style: Financially settled in U.S. dollars
• Contract unit: 50 Ether
• Minimum price fluctuation – outright positions: $0.25 per Ether = $12.50 per contract
• Minimum price fluctuation – calendar spreads: $0.05 per Ether = $2.50 per contract
• Listing cycle: Six-consecutive monthly contracts including the two nearest December contracts
• Expiries: Expiring futures terminate at 4:00 p.m. London time on Last Day of Trading

More about CME Ether Futures
More about CF Benchmarks
CF Benchmarks Reference Rates Methodology
CF Benchmarks’ Constituent Exchanges Criteria