CME expects big demand for its upcoming bitcoin options from Asian traders and miners

Derivatives exchange giant CME Group expects its upcoming bitcoin options to be popular with Asian cryptocurrency traders and miners.

The exchange is hopeful that the options contracts will be as popular as bitcoin futures, which drive most demand (over 50% of trading volume) from Asian and European traders, Tim McCourt, global head of equity index and alternative investment products at CME, told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) in an interview published Thursday.

The Block broke the news last month that CME is going to launch bitcoin options. Later that month, the exchange officially announced the news, saying that the new product will launch in Q1 of 2020.

“While futures give you a one-for-one exposure, whereby the movement of the underlying bitcoin translates directly to a specific dollar value per contract, an option gives you varying strike-price levels and can give you either downside protection, or upside exposure at a fraction of the underlying [assets’s] price,” McCourt was quoted as saying in the SCMP report.

CME began offering bitcoin futures in December 2017, and since the launch, it has traded nearly 7,000 futures contracts (equivalent to about 35,000 bitcoin), on average each day.