Euro-denominated Bitcoin Futures Boost Institutional Adoption – CME Director
The upcoming launch of euro-denominated bitcoin and ether futures could strengthen institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies in the eurozone, Giovanni Vicioso, executive director of equity and alternative products at CME Group, told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview.
“I think when you look at our current U.S. dollar-denominated products, we'll have a fairly diverse mix of participants, like traditional proprietary trading firms, that will provide liquidity for those products, and I think some participants will also provide liquidity for euro-based products.”
Vicioso added that CME's upcoming euro-denominated futures products have received interest from macro hedge funds, small asset managers and long-term crypto investors.
CME is the world's leading derivatives marketplace and includes four exchanges. The company is gearing up to expand its cryptocurrency eyewear offerings with the addition of euro-denominated MicroBitcoin and MicroEther futures, which will go live on March 18.
The introduction of euro-denominated products will essentially create a foreign exchange (FX) contract, which is expected to attract more market participants, Vicioso told Cointelegraph.
“You can go long the US dollar contract and short the euro version or vice versa and you can do that with Bitcoin and Ether contracts. You buy one and sell the other and you have an FX contract.”
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Bitcoin (BTC)-based exchange-traded products (ETPs) have been gaining traction since they were first approved in the US on January 11. Excluding the converted Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) ETF, the nine new position Bitcoin ETFs registered above $2 billion per day for the second consecutive day on February 28.
The maintenance of US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs and regulatory approvals have fueled overall institutional interest in Bitcoin, Vicioso said.
“Since September, we have seen a significant increase in the volumes of Bitcoin and Ether purchased in Euros and we continue to hear growing customer demand, particularly in Euro-denominated crypto products.”
CME expects to double the average daily Bitcoin trading volume from an average of $1.6 billion per day in 2023, to more than $3 billion in daily trading volume by 2024, according to Vicioso.
Bitcoin is down 0.62% in the 24 hours to trade at $62,383 as of 1:15 pm UTC. The world's first cryptocurrency increased by 22.50% on the weekly chart.
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