CME has announced the launch of the Ethereum Futures micro variant in a significant development for the second largest crypto-asset by market capitalization on Dec 06. It's denominated at 1/10 of 1 ETH and will allow users to speculate with precision. This is especially useful because it offers an inclusive product for market participants of all sizes and different risk appetites. The micro product by CME for Ethereum Futures is financially settled, meaning that the final settlement will be made in cash or any other financial instrument, instead of delivering the actual underlying product ETH.

Ethereum Futures micro product was announced on Nov 02, subject to regulatory approval. It appears that CME was able to pass the regulatory hurdles, paving the way for other futures products also, in the process. CME listed the following benefits for launching a micro variant of Ethereum Futures:

1. Traders would be able to attain precision in their strategies
2. Ability to scale up and down incrementally, rather than having to bid 1 ETH as a while
3. Efficient trading and savings on potential margin offsets
4. Institional demand for Ethereum will rise further
5. Increasing accessbility to the world's second largest cryptoasset by market capitalization
6. Access to market wide liquidity and transparency on the financial product

CME pitched the Ethereum Futures micro variant earlier in the following words “The ETH notional value has increased from $1.7K on the date that it launched to nearly $3.6K on October 11, 2021. The amount of capital needed to access the futures market has significantly increased. To make our market more accessible to risk managers and other traders, CME Group will launch the Micro Ether futures contract, which is 1/500 the size of the Ether futures contract (i.e. 1/10 of one ether versus fifty ether for Ether futures (ETH)“