Stephanie Douse 
The world’s largest derivatives marketplace, CME Group has launched micro Bitcoin (BTC) and micro Ethereum (ETH) futures options.
According to CME Group, Galaxy Digital, a digital assets dealer, will offer liquidity for the new products. Galaxy is a prominent player in the institutional crypto space, providing liquidity to a number of big banks that offer crypto products.
CME said today’s launch was in response to institutional clients’ rising interest in bitcoin exposure. The products are designed to give traders more options when it comes to maintaining crypto exposure in their portfolios.
Micro BTC and ETH are one-tenth of a complete token and have substantially lower trading values as a result. However, because most retail traders own BTC and ETH exposure in micro stakes, fluctuations in the micro price might be a fair indicator of how retail sentiment is in the market.
CME presently exclusively offers BTC and ETH derivatives. However, given the increased interest, it is possible that it will follow asset managers like Grayscale and CoinShares in diversifying into other coins.
These contracts will offer a wide range of market participants – from institutions to sophisticated, active, individual traders – greater flexibility and precision to manage their exposure to the top two cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
–Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity and FX Products
Crypto derivatives are a crucial part of the industry since they allow huge investment firms to obtain exposure to the area without having to buy tokens directly. One approach for bitcoin to gain mainstream acceptance is to cultivate a thriving derivatives market.
Institutional interest in cryptocurrency grows
The announcement is just another step in the growing institutional interest in cryptocurrency that has been evident since late 2020.
Crypto market capitalization grew from less than $1 billion in 2020 to approximately $3 billion in late-2021, thanks to investments from prominent trading houses and hedge funds.
And there are no signs of institutional money slowing down. Goldman Sachs recently announced that it would begin issuing specialist crypto derivative products to its clients, citing increased interest in the industry.