Today the time has finally come – the CME Group will introduce a futures market for Ethereum.
The CME Group is one of the world’s leading financial exchanges and hosts much of the trading in top commodities, including Bitcoin. CME Group made headlines in the crypto space in 2017 when it introduced futures for BTC.
Since this introduction happened to mark the peak of the 2017 bull market, some have speculated that this time around it will have the same effect. A number of traders have postulated that this start can cause a short term spike.
However, a large majority of analysts appear to be bullish on Ethereum ( new all-time high for Ethereum! ) As this regulated investment vehicle is about to be launched . This market should allow institutional players to get better exposure to Bitcoin Evolution.
Analysts on the launch of Ethereum CME futures
Analysts appear to be largely bullish or at least neutral on the upcoming launch of the CME Ethereum futures contracts.
Ryan Watkins, Researcher / Analyst at Messari, comments that the „fear“ of how the impending rollout might affect the crypto market is „ridiculous“.
Watkins stresses that after this launch, the fear of a correction stem from just „one data point“. That said, just because the previous CME crypto futures launch coincided with a previous top doesn’t mean it will happen a second time.
Additionally, Watkins believes there are clear differences in market conditions as of December 2017 and market conditions now.
He didn’t name these changes in his thread, but just to highlight two:
Futures are not extremely overvalued as they have been in previous bull trends or previous sections of the current uptrend.
Second, there is a clear institutional imperative, as illustrated by public announcements from Wall Street funds, on-chain data, and interviews published by top media outlets.
Economist Alex Kruger discussed more specifically how this launch can power the Ethereum markets.
“This is a big point. CME futures will allow parties currently struggling to gain access to the $ ETH markets to hedge Grayscale’s $ ETHE risk, resulting in increased institutional demand for $ ETHE, which in turn increases spot demand increased and the $ ETHE premium compressed. „
Existing investors who have access to ETHE and Grayscale’s products may not want to buy the product, even at net asset value.
The introduction of futures, which should be traded at / very close to the spot price and have lower fees than fund products, could be a better way for certain players to buy Ethereum.