CME Launches Single-Stock Futures on 50-Plus Top US Stocks as Its Crypto Derivatives Arm Keeps Growing

A New Way to Trade the Biggest US Stocks

The motorboat covers 77 contracts successful total, i.e. 55 standard-sized futures, each representing 100 shares of the underlying stock, and 22 micro-sized contracts covering 10 shares apiece. The lineup spans mega-cap exertion names specified arsenic Alphabet, Meta and Tesla alongside the precocious nationalist SpaceX, positive household names including Micron, Pfizer and Walmart, according to CME Group’s own announcement.

All contracts are cash-settled against the underlying stock’s closing terms and travel a quarterly expiration structure, akin to CME’s existing equity scale futures. Tim McCourt, CME Group’s planetary caput of equities, FX and alternate products, said the motorboat is simply a effect to trader demand, noting:

“Clients privation to negociate equity terms hazard with much precision and with the superior efficiencies of a centralized marketplace.”

He further added that the merchandise is designed to widen CME’s idiosyncratic basal beyond its accepted organization clientele, telling reporters the contracts person “the quality to bring successful a batch of caller traders to our ecosystem.” CME said it is moving with much than 35 retail intermediary firms to administer entree to the contracts alongside its accustomed organization desks.

Built for Around-the-Clock Access

The single-stock futures commercialized for astir 23 hours a day, 5 days a week, connected CME’s Globex platform, acold longer than the 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern model that governs regular US banal trading. That operation lets traders respond to net reports, macro information oregon geopolitical headlines the infinitesimal they break, alternatively than waiting for the opening bell.

However, specified flexibility carries its ain risk, with Mat Cashman, main for capitalist acquisition astatine the Options Clearing Corp, cautioning that liquidity tin bladed retired overnight. Cashman said trading extracurricular of mean hours, “including during the volatile minutes aft companies study earnings, tin beryllium choppy,” a informing that echoes concerns already raised astir bladed bid books successful CME’s round-the-clock crypto markets.

Unlike commission-free equity and options apps that trust connected outgo for bid flow, futures traders typically wage a committee connected each single-stock declaration they trade.

Single-stock futures are not caller to the US, but they person a rocky history. OneChicago, an speech jointly owned by CME Group, Cboe Global Markets and Interactive Brokers, traded information futures for astir 2 decades earlier it unopen down successful September 2020, citing bladed demand.

The Bridge to CME’s Crypto Derivatives Business

The caller contracts notably exclude immoderate crypto tokens oregon integer assets, but they tally connected infrastructure CME has refined for years done its crypto business, i.e. cash-settled, margin-based products that fto traders instrumentality leveraged, custody-free vulnerability to a fast-moving asset. CME launched bitcoin futures backmost successful 2017 and has since built retired the largest regulated derivatives marketplace for integer assets successful the country.

That crypto franchise has kept expanding successful 2026 with the CME Group rolling retired 24/7 trading for its bitcoin and ether futures and options connected May 29, clearing astir $50 cardinal crossed much than 7,200 contracts successful the debut weekend.

Since then, the steadfast has added crypto scale futures tracking bitcoin, solana and XRP, and had adjacent slated a bitcoin volatility futures rollout. That said, CME’s bitcoin derivatives publication has cooled from its highs, with unfastened involvement successful CME bitcoin futures falling to $8.41 cardinal connected April 11, a 14-month debased (as annualized basis-trade returns compressed from the 15%-20% scope down to astir 5% and regular measurement slipped beneath $3 billion).