CME Group Inc is moving closer to adopting crypto’s always-on trading model, announcing plans to allow futures and options on digital assets to trade nearly 24 hours a day later this year, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Under the proposal, crypto derivatives will trade continuously on CME’s Globex system from May 29, subject to regulatory approval. The exchange will retain a short weekly maintenance window of at least two hours over the weekend. Trades executed between Friday evening and Sunday evening will be recorded with a trade date of the following business day, with clearing, settlement and regulatory reporting also processed then.
The move brings CME’s crypto offering closer to offshore venues such as Binance, where perpetual futures already trade around the clock, while preserving traditional clearing and settlement structures used by institutional investors.
CME’s crypto futures are widely used by hedge funds, proprietary trading firms and asset managers to hedge spot exposure, run basis trades or express directional views without holding digital tokens directly. Participants have previously faced gaps between US market hours and crypto’s weekend volatility, when offshore markets remained active but CME was closed.
By extending trading hours, CME aims to reduce that mismatch and allow institutional investors to adjust positions in real time during periods of heightened volatility. Weekend and late-night sell-offs have often been exacerbated by thin liquidity when US-listed bitcoin ETFs and CME contracts were unavailable.
