Chicago Merchantile Exchange Group (CME) on Wednesday published specifications for the bitcoin options contracts. According to the announcement, each contract would be based on one of CME’s bitcoin futures contracts. It further noted that the options would settle into one futures contract when the trading ends. CME contracts would be quoted in US dollars per bitcoin with a tick size of $25.
Earlier, the CEO of the exchange had said that the demand for bitcoin among institutions is increasing. CME still awaits regulatory approval for the bitcoin options contracts. The Chicago exchange published the specifications just a few days after its competitor Bakkt announced to launch a similar product that would go live from December 2019.
Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler revealed in a blog post that they received customer feedback asking for the bitcoin options on its existing bitcoin futures contracts. Over the past few weeks, the trading volume on Bakk has increased significantly, but still, it is not close to CME.
