CME launches bitcoin futures (December 2017)
CME Group listed the first US-regulated bitcoin futures contracts, giving institutional investors a regulated way to bet on bitcoin price. The contracts settled in cash against a CME bitcoin index.
Trading volume was modest at first, but the launch legitimized regulated crypto derivatives and drew institutions into the market.
Regulated crypto derivatives grew into a core product line across CME, Coinbase, and Kraken, and served as the template for crypto-native exchanges to follow.
Coinbase's clearing approval extends the same regulated-derivatives model that CME's 2017 launch opened, but with crypto-native settlement in USDC rather than cash.
