CME Group has expanded its Bitcoin futures and options trading to a full 24 hours and seven days timeframe.

On its Globex platform, CME Group has expanded its Bitcoin futures and options trading to a full 24 hours and seven days timeframe. The change will be made effective on Friday. Moreover, it will now only leave 1 hour of maintenance for each Sunday between 10PM and 11PM UTC. CME Group Offers Round-The-Clock Trading For Bitcoin Products The update represents a significant change within crypto derivatives markets. Bitcoin traders would closely watch the so-called “CME gap.” For context, this gap formed as the Bitcoin spot markets continued trading activity over the weekend, while the CME Group’s futures market paused. This price disconnect often resulted in obvious gaps between Friday’s closing price and the open on Sunday. Traders often created trading plans that were based on the idea that those gaps would fill. This pattern had become one of the most closely followed technical patterns in Bitcoin. The weekend market conditions were also a factor. Spot markets sometimes experienced heightened volatility in prices due to lower liquidity on Saturday and Sunday. If the market activity was strong, futures prices would quickly move in line with the market, when CME reopened late Sunday. The drastic shift in prices affected many traders. However, with trading running around the clock for the majority of the weekend, the sharp reopen adjustments may be less frequent these days. Still, some traders are looking at the weekly maintenance break. The liquidity may be even further reduced over the one-hour trading halt on Sunday, prior to the opening of futures trading. In another update, the SEC has approved Bitcoin index options to be listed on Nasdaq. It hints at heightened competition for CME Group’s BTC-related products. How Institutional Participants Can Benefit With This Change? CME Group’s decision also enhances flexibility for the institutional participants. Treasury firms, hedge funds, and asset managers are now able to respond to market changes without having to wait for futures markets to reopen. Despite this, CME Group remains slightly less active than other Bitcoin derivatives products when it comes to activity. They indicated that there are tens of billions of dollars in open interest for options related to BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. The demand comes as the BlackRock BTC ETF is recording massive trading activity as it registered robust inflows since inception. By comparison, the interest for CME Bitcoin options are much smaller.

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