Ethereum Surges to New All-Time High after CME Launched Micro ETH Futures

The price of Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market, surged to a new all-high of $4,635 a few hours ago, according to CoinGecko, a height that could be attributed to the launch of Micro ETH Futures by CME.

The world’s largest smart contract network has built on weekly momentum to tap the new peak and notch up a 6% gain on the day. Over the past seven days, ETH has added 10%, and it is up 34% over the past month. At the time of writing, Ethereum (ETH) has retraced to trade at $4,589.77.

PrimeXBT partner “₿yzantinΞ General” commented that there probably wouldn’t be many tokens that outperform ETH over the next couple of months.

₿yzantinΞ General tweeted, “ETH making new all time highs while funding rates are low, meanwhile the rest of the market has very high rates. I think the most important question right now is “what’s going to outperform ETH next couple months?”. And the answer is probably: “not much”.

CME Launches Micro ETH Futures

The most recent price pump came shortly after the Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced a new ETH initiative. According to a press release from PR Newswire, Micro Ether futures are sized at a mere tenth of the asset’s size. However, they still retain the features and benefits of CME’s existing Ether futures.

The product comes months after CME’s launch of Micro Bitcoin futures, which are respectively sized at one-tenth the size of BTC. Over 2.7 million of those contracts have been traded since being launched in May. Meanwhile, Ether futures have traded 675 000 contracts since launch, amounting to about 33.8 million ETH.

Both Micro Ether and Micro Bitcoin Futures allow organizations to fine-tune their trading for each cryptocurrency. As both Ether and Bitcoin have recently reached all-time highs, trading each at full value can be rather imprecise.

Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products, recognizes why this makes Micro ETH futures necessary:

“Since the launch of Ether futures in February, we have seen steady growth in liquidity in these contracts, especially among institutional traders. At the same time, the price of ether has more than doubled since these contracts were introduced, creating demand for a micro-sized contract to make this market even more accessible to a broader range of participants.”

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Tobi Loba

Tobi Loba is a passionate writer with a vast interest in the stock market. She joined the crypto ecosystem about three years ago and has written lots of ebooks and articles in relation to cryptocurrency and blockchain projects. Tobi Loba earned her degree at the University of Ibadan.