The Mercantile Chicago Exchange, the largest derivative market in the world, announced on October 2, 2025, that it will offer an exchange 24 hours a day against term contracts and cryptocurrency options from the beginning of 2026. The move marks a major change in the functioning of regulated cryptographic markets.
CME Group Currently closed its cryptographic markets on weekends and holidays, unlike the wider market of cryptocurrencies which is continuously negotiated. The new system will exchange the CME Globex platform with only a two-hour maintenance window each weekend.
Tim McCourt, a global leader in actions, FX and alternative CME products, explained the reasoning behind expansion. “Customer demand for cryptocurrency trade 24 hours a day has increased because market players must manage their risks every day of the week,” he said in the company’s press release.
Record growth in growth
CME Crypto products reached several records in 2025, justifying the expansion of continuous trading. In August alone, the exchange processed on average 41,000 contracts per day, which represents an increase of 230% compared to the previous year. This resulted in $ 14.9 billion in negotiation value.
The third quarter of 2025 saw average daily volumes reaching 340,000 contracts, worth around 14.1 billion dollars. The scholarship also recorded $ 39 billion in theoretical interests open on September 18, its highest level of all time.
More institutional investors participate than ever. More than 1,010 major holders of open interests were active on CME cryptocurrency products during the week of September 25, establishing another record. This shows that the main financial players are increasingly using regulated platforms to exchange cryptographic derivatives.
CME now leads the market in Bitcoin and Ethereum Futures by an open interest. The exchange holds $ 16.8 billion in term contracts on Bitcoin and $ 9.8 billion in Ethereum, making it the dominant actor in regulated cryptography derivatives.
The end of the CME gaps
The merchants who follow Bitcoin closely know the “CME gaps” – the price differences that appear when Bitcoin moves during the Bourse fosteries of the Stock Exchange. When CME reopens on Sunday evening, there is often a gap between Friday’s fence price and the new opening price.
Source: @Cmegroup
These gaps are important because Bitcoin tends to “fill” them possibly, which means that the price often returns to these levels. Studies show that at least 65% of CME gaps are filled over time, making important reference points for merchants.
With 24/7 trading, these gaps will go away widely. This could change the way Bitcoin prices move because the difference in differences has influenced trading strategies for years.
The CEO sees a wider change of market
The CME and CEO president-and-chief executive officer Terry Duffy took the floor at a joint meeting in the SEC-CFTC on September 29, where he predicted that the 24/7 trade would become standard on the financial markets. “I believe that this is the world in which we are going to live and the market will demand it,” Duffy told regulators, calling Crypto the “best way to get there”.
Other major exchange leaders have accepted. The CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, Jeff Sprecher, suggested that the markets should decide which products need a continuous exchange. The CEO of Nasdaq, Adena Friedman, said that her business was preparing for prolonged negotiation hours, although she noted the operational challenges involved.
Regulatory review and calendar
The plan requires the approval of the COMMITITY FUTURES TRADING Commission before the launch. This process faces a complication – the closure of the US government which started on October 1, 2025, reduced CFTC operations to essential functions only.
During closings, regulatory organizations operate with a minimum of personnel, which can delay examinations and approvals. However, with the target date of the beginning of 2026, CME has time for the approval process once normal government operations resume.
The professions executed during the holidays or the weekends will bear the date of the next working day. Compensation, regulations and reports will also deal with the following working day, maintaining consistency with existing financial infrastructure.
Competitive landscape
CME is not the only expansion access to crypto trading. Coinbase recently launched 24/7 term negotiations for American customers and bought negotiation options on the market for $ 2.9 billion. Other traditional exchanges are also moving into space, CBOE providing to launch future Bitcoin and Ethereum continuous in November 2025.
CME expanded its crypto offers throughout 2025. The exchange launched the XRP term contracts in May and Solana Futures in March. The two products quickly gained ground with institutional investors. Solana Futures reached $ 1 billion in open interest faster than Bitcoin or Ethereum Futures during their first launch.
The Exchange plans to add negotiation options for term contracts on Solana and XRP on October 13, giving traders more tools to manage their exposure to cryptography.
What it means for merchants
Continuous trading will allow institutional investors to immediately respond to market events, regardless of time or day. Previously, the main price movements during the authentic CMEs left the merchants unable to adjust their positions until the markets reopened.
The change will also reduce dependence on the exchanges of offshore cryptocurrency which already operate 24/7 but with less regulatory surveillance. The regulated CME environment offers protections that unregulated platforms cannot correspond, which makes it attractive for institutions that managed large amounts of capital.
The market infrastructure will need upgrades to support continuous operations. As the CEO of DRW Holdings noted, Don Wilson, at the September round table, “to have 24/7 markets, you need a collateral movement 24/7”. This indicates the technical challenges of the management of compensation systems and settlement without interruption.
The upcoming road
CME move to Crypto Trading 24/7 reflects the way digital assets reshape traditional finances. What started as an experience with Bitcoin Futures in 2017 has become a market of several billion dollars which now competes in established financial products.
The continuous trading model provides regulated cryptographic derivatives in accordance with nature still during the cash market. This alignment could attract more institutional participation, because companies acquire the ability to manage the risks at any time without going to less regulated platforms.
Although regulatory approval and technical implementation remain, management is clear. Traditional finance adapts to correspond to the crypto rate, and CME leads this transformation.
