Exchange operator CME Group (NASDAQ: CME), the holding company for CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX exchanges, has just released its February 2020 aggregated volumes, sharing its trading statistics across key business segments. The latest figures hit an all-time high in terms of average daily volumes, having been subject to a wide range of factors that influenced the market last month.
CME Group’s average daily foreign exchange volumes were also higher YoY in February 2020, coming in at 1 million contracts per day, up 35 percent from the year earlier. Month-over-month, February figures were also higher by 30 percent when compared to 770,000 contracts in January.
In terms of its overall volume for February 2020, CME Group reported an average of 30.1 million contracts, an increase of 58% from February 2019. This latest reading did continue a consecutive monthly rise when compared to an average daily volume of 18.9 million contracts during the month of January.
Record-breaking interest in Bitcoin options
This growth was fueled by a strong performance with record Interest Rate ADV of 17.1 million contracts, up 55% from Feb 2019. Options ADV hit 6.1 million contracts, up 73% year-over-year, while metals averaged 909,000 contracts per day, up 73 percent from 2019.
On the crypto front, CME went live last month with its Bitcoin futures contracts, the latest move by the world’s largest futures exchange operator, to expand into the crypto business. According to figures supplied by CME, volumes of its long-awaited crypto derivatives skyrocketed in the seven days since its debut on January 13. The Chicago-based exchange also reported that open interest in Bitcoin Futures touched a record high of over 6,600 contracts.
The new product enables greater flexibility in managing Bitcoin price risk and saving on potential margin offsets between Bitcoin futures and options, while mitigating the risk of counterparty default through central CME Clearing. CME BTC options are be priced off of the CME Bitcoin Reference Rate, an index that references pricing data from several cryptocurrency exchanges, currently made up of Bitstamp, Coinbase, itBit, Kraken, and Gemini.
