CME Group has expanded its cryptocurrency derivatives suite with new Bitcoin Cash and Uniswap futures, and the first institutional block trades were confirmed on October 20. FalconX and GSR executed the initial block trades in both contracts, a day after the October 19 launch. Bitcoin Cash traded at $275.30 on October 25, up 1.6% over 24 hours and 1.9% weekly, while Uniswap was the outperformer in a mostly red market, adding 0.44% to $6.91, per CoinGecko data.
The new CME BCH products include a standard contract sized at 250 BCH and a Micro contract of 25 BCH. At current spot levels, the standard contract represents roughly $68,750 of notional exposure, while the Micro contract represents about $6,875. For Uniswap, the listing is more structurally significant: UNI became the first decentralized-finance protocol token with futures on a US-regulated, centrally cleared exchange. Giovanni Vicioso, CME Group global head of cryptocurrency products, said the new contracts give clients more versatility to manage crypto risk and exposure through CME’s 24/7 marketplace.
FalconX’s head of derivatives, Griffin Sears, framed the demand shift: “Institutional demand is moving beyond the largest digital assets toward tokens with distinct use cases, like Bitcoin Cash in payments and Uniswap in decentralized finance.” GSR CEO Xin Song added that supporting the contracts from day one was a natural extension of the firm’s crypto derivatives liquidity business.
Meanwhile, Grayscale is running a parallel institutional route for Bitcoin Cash after filing on September 14 to convert its Bitcoin Cash Trust into a spot Bitcoin Cash ETF. BCH’s supply mechanics also remain in focus: roughly 20.11 million of the 21 million maximum supply has already been mined, leaving less than 900,000 BCH outstanding. The token remains about 92.7% below its December 2017 all-time high of $3,785.82 and down 45.7% over the past year. Key levels for BCH are $265 support and $343 resistance. For UNI, the weekly range spans $6.51 to $7.79, with $7.04 the October 25 high and $6.65 the October 24 low.
The broader market backdrop was softer: Bitcoin slipped back below $80,000 on October 25, closing near $79,908, while Ether fell to about $2,318 and Solana dropped to $100.85. The CME move does not guarantee sustained spot buying, since futures are two-sided instruments and the listings are now several days old. Still, the launch brings regulated institutional access to two assets that previously lacked it on US market infrastructure.
