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CME Group

Chicago-based CME Group runs the CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX derivatives markets, supervised by the CFTC, where futures and options are traded, not bitcoin. It has listed bitcoin futures since 2017; since 29 May 2026 crypto derivatives have traded 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Riccardo CuratoloBy Riccardo Curatolo 3 min read How we work
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What CME Group is

CME Group Inc. is the Chicago company that operates four regulated derivatives markets: the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME, whose origins date back to 1898), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT, 1848), NYMEX and COMEX. The group was formed in 2007 from the merger of CME and CBOT and in 2008 acquired NYMEX, the owner of COMEX. On the CME Globex electronic platform, futures and options are traded on interest rates, equity indices, currencies, energy, agricultural products, metals and crypto-assets; trades are cleared by the group's central counterparty, CME Clearing. The first bitcoin future dates from December 2017. Today the crypto line-up includes futures on bitcoin, ether, XRP, Solana, Cardano, Chainlink, Stellar, Avalanche and Sui, options, "spot-quoted" contracts (quoted like the spot price, with long-dated expiries) and bitcoin volatility futures. According to the company, its crypto derivatives recorded a record notional volume of 3 trillion dollars in 2025. The CME does not sell or hold bitcoin: to trade its contracts, private individuals too must go through a broker. (Verified: October 2026)

Regulation and licences

(Verified: October 2026)

  • MiCA: NOT APPLICABLE — CME Group does not provide crypto-asset services within the meaning of MiCA and does not appear in the ESMA register of CASPs: the regulation covers crypto-assets not already governed by financial services legislation, whereas futures and options are derivative financial instruments.
  • United States — CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX are Designated Contract Markets (DCMs), regulated markets supervised by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). On 1 December 2017, when the CME self-certified its bitcoin futures, the CFTC stated that the procedure was neither an approval nor an endorsement of the products and warned that these contracts may involve potentially high volatility and risk.
  • Italy — CONSOB (Italy's securities regulator) recognises four of the group's markets as foreign markets: CBOT (resolution no. 14648 of 15 July 2004), CME-Globex (resolution no. 14756 of 20 October 2004), NYMEX and COMEX (resolutions no. 19104 and no. 19105 of 21 January 2015). The recognition allows Italian banks and investment firms to access them remotely.
  • Warnings — there are no CONSOB warnings or blocking orders concerning CME Group (search on the authority's website, 26 October 2026).

Security

The CME does not hold crypto-assets in custody: contracts are cleared by CME Clearing, which collects the margin deposits. The main risk is market risk: futures are traded by posting a margin, that is, only part of the contract's value, and the resulting leverage amplifies both gains and losses. Between 27 and 28 November 2025 a cooling failure at a CyrusOne data centre halted futures and options on CME Globex, where crypto derivatives are also traded, for more than ten hours. The sources consulted show no cyberattacks involving the theft of customer funds linked to the CME's crypto products (Verified: October 2026).

Headquarters and contacts

  • CME Group Inc., 20 South Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606, United States: this is the headquarters address given in the SEC's company records (October 2026).
  • Official website: https://www.cmegroup.com/

FAQ

Can you buy bitcoin on the CME? No. The CME is a derivatives market: what is traded there are futures and options whose value depends on the price of crypto-assets, not the crypto-assets themselves. Trading requires an intermediary, such as a broker.

Are the CME's crypto derivatives also traded at weekends? Yes. Since 29 May 2026 crypto futures and options have been traded 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on CME Globex, with at least two hours of weekly maintenance; weekend trades are recorded with the date of the following business day. In the first weekend more than 7,200 contracts were traded, around 50 million dollars in notional value (Verified: October 2026).

Who supervises the CME, and can it be used from Italy? In the United States, the CFTC. In Italy, CONSOB recognises four of the group's markets as foreign markets that banks and investment firms can access remotely: a private individual can reach them only through an intermediary.

Who runs CME Group? Terry Duffy, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO since 2016). On 17 June 2026 the company announced that from 1 March 2027 Duffy will become executive chairman and Lynne Fitzpatrick, currently President and chief financial officer, will become chief executive officer (Verified: October 2026).

Verified sources

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