Considering that demand has been driven up by the eagerly anticipated merger, CME Group, a prominent derivatives marketplace, has introduced options for Ethereum futures.
“As market participants anticipate the upcoming Ethereum Merge, a potentially game-changing update of one of the largest cryptocurrency networks, interest in Ether derivatives is surging,” noted the CME Group Head of Equity and FX Products, Tim McCourt.
Since it will switch the consensus process from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS), Ethereum 2.0 or otherwise known as the Merge is predicted to be the biggest software modification in the Ethereum ecosystem.
The different options would support Ether futures from CME Group, which have seen a 43% increase in average daily trading volume YoY.
The DRW Head of relationship management, Rob Strebel, stated that they anticipate continued high demand for the Ether options contract as ether moves via the scheduled merge this week on Thursday.
The Genesis global head of sales, Leon Marshall also endorsed the Merge, by affirming that “the launch of the new Ether options contract ahead of the highly anticipated Ethereum Merge provides our clients with greater flexibility to trade and hedge their Ether price risk.”
The cryptocurrency world has been anticipating the Ethereum merge with eager anticipation, which has caused the network’s speculative activity to soar, according to Blockchain.News. The open interest in the ETH ecosystem demonstrated that there was more pressure to purchase than to sell.
However, a hard-fork method is anticipated to be implemented 24 hours following the upgrade.