Tag: Futures

ProShares to Launch First Ether ETF and Blended Crypto Funds

by Blockchain News

Bethesda, Maryland-based ProShares, a prominent player in the crypto-linked ETF market, has announced a significant expansion of its product line. On October 2, 2023, the firm will launch three new exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including the ProShares Ether Strategy ETF (EETH). This will be the first ETF specifically designed to track the performance of ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. In addition to EETH, ProShares is introducing two blended ETFs that aim to offer investors exposure to both bitcoin and ether, the dominant cryptocurrencies in the market.

ProShares has been a pioneer in the ETF industry since its inception in 2006. With over $60 billion in managed assets, the firm has been a leader in various investment strategies, including crypto, dividend growth, and geared (leveraged and inverse) ETFs.

The launch of these ETFs is a significant milestone in the maturation of the cryptocurrency market. It follows ProShares’ earlier successes, including the launch of BITO in 2021 and BITI, the first U.S. short bitcoin-linked ETF, in 2022. These new ETFs are expected to further legitimize cryptocurrency investments and could potentially attract a new wave of institutional investors.

Michael L. Sapir, CEO of ProShares, highlighted the growing demand for crypto-linked ETFs, citing the success of their bitcoin-linked ETF, BITO. Launched nearly two years ago, BITO has amassed more than $2 billion in net inflows and has become the largest crypto-linked ETF globally. “The launch of EETH is a response to substantial investor demand for a regulated financial product that targets ether,” said Sapir.

ProShares is also diversifying its offerings with the Bitcoin & Ether Equal Weight Strategy ETF (BETE) and the Bitcoin & Ether Market Cap Weight Strategy ETF (BETH). BETE will undergo monthly rebalancing to maintain a 50/50 weighting between bitcoin and ether. In contrast, BETH will adjust its holdings based on the market capitalization of the two cryptocurrencies. “These groundbreaking ETFs offer investors the opportunity to target the performance of the two leading cryptocurrencies through a single transaction and a single ticker,” Sapir elaborated.

One of the key advantages of these new ETFs is their accessibility through traditional brokerage accounts. This eliminates the need for investors to set up a separate crypto custodian, exchange account, or wallet. “Our crypto-linked ETFs are designed to attract investors who are interested in cryptocurrencies but are concerned about the risks associated with custody or the complexities of direct purchases,” Sapir noted.

Unlike many other investment vehicles, these ETFs do not invest directly in cryptocurrencies. Instead, they primarily invest in ether and bitcoin futures. According to ProShares’ research, these futures have historically shown a .99 correlation with their respective cryptocurrencies, offering a near-perfect tracking of the underlying assets.

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CME Group Rolls Out Ether Options for Upcoming Merge

by Blockchain News

CME Group, a leading derivatives marketplace, has launched the options of Ether futures, given that the much-anticipated merge has been pushing demand.

Tim McCourt, the global head of Equity and FX products at CME Group, pointed out:

“As market participants anticipate the upcoming Ethereum Merge, a potentially game-changing update of one of the largest cryptocurrency networks, interest in Ether derivatives is surging.”

Since the merge is slated for September 15, CME Group intends to offer more flexibility with the Ether options. Leon Marshall, the global head of sales at Genesis, stated:

“The launch of the new Ether options contract ahead of the highly anticipated Ethereum Merge provides our clients with greater flexibility to trade and hedge their Ether price risk.”

The merge is anticipated to be the largest software upgrade in the Ethereum ecosystem because it will change the consensus mechanism from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS).

Therefore, the new options will complement CME Group’s Ether futures, which have recorded a 43% surge in average daily volume year-over-year. 

Rob Strebel, the head of relationship management for DRW, said:

“As ether transitions through the anticipated merge this week, we expect we’ll continue to see strong demand for this Ether options contract.”

Since the Ethereum merge has been awaited with bated breath by the crypto community, the network’s speculative action has skyrocketed, Blockchain.News. The open interest shown in the ETH network highlighted that buying pressure outweighed selling. 

On the other hand, a hard-fork mechanism is expected to be deployed within 24 hours after the merge. 

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CME Group to Launch Euro-Denominated Bitcoin, Ether Futures on August 29

by Blockchain News

CME Group, the US leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, announced on Thursday that it will launch Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures on August 29. The move is part of CME’s efforts to expand its cryptocurrency derivatives offering services.

The financial derivatives exchange termed the launch as important as enabling Bitcoin users to trade Euro-dominated Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) futures contracts on the regulated exchange.

Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equity and FX Products, CME Group, talked about the development: “Ongoing uncertainty in cryptocurrency markets, along with the robust growth and deep liquidity of our existing Bitcoin and Ether futures, is creating an increased demand for risk management solutions by institutional investors outside the U.S. Our Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures contracts will provide clients with more precise tools to trade and hedge exposure to the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.”

CME will unveil Euro-denominated Bitcoin and Ether futures to help meet the rising demand for regulated and expanding, non-USD crypto derivatives.

According to CME, offerings of Euro-denominated Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts could accelerate increasing demand for crypto products from institutional investors.

The products will provide crypto derivative alternatives because the euro, the official currency of 19 out of 27 EU member countries, is the second-most-desired currency in global currency reserves.

CME designed the Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures contracts to match their U.S. dollar-denominated counterparts.

The derivative exchange stated that it will size Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures at five Bitcoins and 50 Ethers per contract. Such new contracts will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Bitcoin-Euro Reference Rate and CME CF Ether-Euro Reference Rate, which serve as once-a-day reference rates of the euro-denominated price of Bitcoin and Ether.

Rising Infrastructure for The Crypto Investor

CME’s Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures are the latest investment products to be launched tied to a cryptocurrency.

In March, CME launched Bitcoin and Ether options on the micro futures contracts of the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization: Bitcoin (BTCUSD) and Ether (ETHUSD).

Last year, the exchange witnessed interest in crypto assets from retail investors, especially Millennials and Gen Zs, reaching new heights.

That was the part of the reason that led CME, in March this year, to launch micro futures to offer more affordable options for investors seeking to gain exposure to Bitcoin and Ether derivative products.

And so far, the company has continued to expand its suite of cryptocurrency derivatives offerings further.

In October last year, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), the first ETF linked to Bitcoin, started trading, providing investors with the opportunity to gain exposure to Bitcoin returns in a convenient, liquid and transparent manner.

Shortly afterwards, several similar Bitcoin ETFs unveiled their trading services which track the future price of the coin.

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MEXC Global Rolls Out MX/USDT Perpetual Trading Pair to Enhance Ecosystem

by Blockchain News

Crypto exchange MEXC Global has incorporated the MX/USDT perpetual trading pair to enhance the MX Futures market and propel the MEXC ecosystem to the next level.

Presently, MEXC Global supports the perpetual trading of more than 200 cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), Binance Coin (BNB), Solana (SOL), and Polygon (MATIC).

Therefore, perpetual trading cuts across different crypto sectors like the metaverse, decentralised finance (DeFi), decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), game and finance (GameFi), cross-chain and public chain.

With statistics showing that the MEXC Futures’ liquidity is the top in the world, the new MX/USDT pair is intended to offer more trading opportunities and options to institutional and retail traders. 

Per the announcement:

“In terms of market depth and stability, MEXC keeps making efforts and remains competitive. MEXC’s futures trading system is independently developed by an experienced core technical team.” 

“With constant optimisation and regular upgrades, the platform is able to avoid downtime events when extreme trading volume surges,” the report added.

Established four years, MEXC Futures has been rendering product advantages and technical experience in user experience, liquidity, risk control, fundamental transaction depth, trading mechanism, and system stability.

Therefore, MEXC Global seeks to continue enhancing futures trading by listing more tokens. The crypto exchange has also shown its commitment to boosting the globalisation of cryptocurrency trading. For instance, it permitted crypto purchases that attracted zero transaction fees through SWIFT and Fedwire earlier in June.

MEXC Global said that the direct deposit option with no charges would offer users convenience and affordability as they sought an enhanced crypto trading experience, Blockchain.News reported. 

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MEXC Global Rolls Out MX/USDT Perpetual Trading Pair to Enhance Ecosystem

by Blockchain News

Crypto exchange MEXC Global has incorporated the MX/USDT perpetual trading pair to enhance the MX Futures market and propel the MEXC ecosystem to the next level.

Presently, MEXC Global supports the perpetual trading of more than 200 cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), Binance Coin (BNB), Solana (SOL), and Polygon (MATIC).

Therefore, perpetual trading cuts across different crypto sectors like the metaverse, decentralised finance (DeFi), decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), game and finance (GameFi), cross-chain and public chain.

With statistics showing that the MEXC Futures’ liquidity is the top in the world, the new MX/USDT pair is intended to offer more trading opportunities and options to institutional and retail traders. 

Per the announcement:

“In terms of market depth and stability, MEXC keeps making efforts and remains competitive. MEXC’s futures trading system is independently developed by an experienced core technical team.” 

“With constant optimisation and regular upgrades, the platform is able to avoid downtime events when extreme trading volume surges,” the report added.

Established four years, MEXC Futures has been rendering product advantages and technical experience in user experience, liquidity, risk control, fundamental transaction depth, trading mechanism, and system stability.

Therefore, MEXC Global seeks to continue enhancing futures trading by listing more tokens. The crypto exchange has also shown its commitment to boosting the globalisation of cryptocurrency trading. For instance, it permitted crypto purchases that attracted zero transaction fees through SWIFT and Fedwire earlier in June.

MEXC Global said that the direct deposit option with no charges would offer users convenience and affordability as they sought an enhanced crypto trading experience, Blockchain.News reported. 

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Coinbase’s ‘Nano’ Bitcoin Futures Product Surges amid Declining Trading Volume

by Blockchain News

Coinbase’s new derivatives unit is capturing the interest of new retail traders who are eyeing the crypto exchange’s “nano” bitcoin product amid the company’s collapsing trading volumes.

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Coinbase’s “nano” bitcoin futures product saw volumes touch records three straight days in the last week even after its spot trading volume collapsed from $200 billion in May 2021 to $59 billion in July.

The nano bitcoin futures product was launched in June. 

According to The Block, the cash-settled futures contract represents 1/100th of a bitcoin and trades across several retail brokers, including Wedbush, EdgeClear, and NinjaTrader. 

“It requires less upfront capital than traditional futures products and creates a real opportunity for significant expansion of retail participation in the US regulated crypto futures markets,” Boris Ilyesky, head of Coinbase Derivatives Exchange, said at the time of the product’s launch.

Following several days of increase, the nano futures’ national volume eventually touched 217,045 on July 19. However, data from Bloomberg shows that contract volumes fell to 117,493 on July 22.

In June and July, data showed that volumes stood below 50,000 contracts traded daily.

The crypto exchange firm saw a “surge in activity ever since retail broker partners started marketing/ promotional efforts last week,” according to an email sent out by Coinbase’s sales team.

Coinbase only entered the derivatives market this year after it purchased FairX – a derivatives venue regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Its competitors are firms like FTX and CME Group, which trade tens of billions of dollars per month in bitcoin futures. 

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Canadian Financial Company TMX Group to Launch First Crypto Futures This Year

by Blockchain News

Canadian financial services company TMX Group said it would launch its first crypto futures product later this year.

TMX said the move is an asset class that actively addresses the broad growth in investor and corporate interest in cryptocurrencies while offering users a risk hedging asset class.

Wealthsimple, another platform that primarily provides stock trading to Canadians, has started offering cryptocurrency trading services to its clients, having passed the Ontario Securities Commission’s legal operating qualifications on June 18 last year.

TMX CEO John McKenzie told Reuters on Tuesday that he hopes to have the product listed on the Montreal exchange by the end of the year, adding that:

“More institutional investors and dealers are… holding more crypto assets within their portfolios or for their clients or in ETFs. In crypto, there’s a lot of price volatility so (they’re looking at) how they manage that exposure.”

TMX listed the first Bitcoin ETF on the Toronto Stock Exchange a year ago. As of Dec. 31, the group listed 17 cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Currently, TMX Group’s TSX-listed stock X is up 2%, with a transaction price of CA$129.85.

As reported by Blockchain.News on Feb. 8, Multinational firm services and one of the Big four auditing firms, the Canadian distribution of KPMG, said it added Bitcoin and Ethereum to its balance sheet. KPMG has become the latest major company to convert some of its fiat assets into cryptocurrencies.

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TMX Group Canada to unveil crypto futures product later this year

by Cointelegraph

In response to institutional investors’ concerns about the risks of trading in a new asset class, TMX Group, Canada’s major stock market operator, has revealed plans to launch its first-ever crypto futures product.

While speaking to Reuters, TMX Group’s John McKenzie said that the firm plans to release the product on the Montreal Exchange later this year. According to Mackenzie, “more institutional investors and dealers are […] holding more crypto assets within their portfolios or for their clients or in ETFs,” adding they are working on how to mitigate risk due to crypto’s huge volatility.

Cointelegraph reached out to TMX Group for more details regarding this development. This article will be updated pending new information.

Cryptocurrency assets have suffered significant drops in recent months as investors sought safer investments amid expectations of interest rate hikes by central banks. They’ve made progress in recovering some of their losses in recent weeks, with Bitcoin (BTC) regaining past the $42K mark and the price of Ether (ETH) pulling back to retest $3,000 support levels.

The news from TMX Group arrives as cryptocurrencies are increasingly gaining interest from investors and organizations. The most well-known example is business intelligence software firm MicroStrategy, which has converted all of its cash reserves into Bitcoin and even raised debt to finance further purchases.

Related: MicroStrategy CEO won’t sell $5B BTC stash despite crypto winter

As reported by Cointelegraph earlier this week, KPMG, one of Canada’s top accounting firms, added Bitcoin and Ethereum to its corporate treasury, becoming the latest big firm to convert a portion of its fiat assets into cryptocurrencies.

Electric automaker Tesla was holding nearly $2 billion in Bitcoin on its balance sheet at the end of 2021, according to official records published on Monday. According to Bitcoin Treasuries data, forty publicly listed businesses now hold BTC.