Bitcoin and Ether carried the quarter as CME's new 24/7 trading model pulled weekend traders into a market that used to close on Fridays
CME Group just had its biggest quarter ever in crypto. The Chicago-based exchange operator recorded $469.5 billion in notional trading volume across its crypto futures and options suite in Q3 2026, a record for the business.
CME’s Bitcoin suite accounted for $326.7 billion of the quarter’s notional volume, while its Ether products added $118.8 billion. Taken together, the two largest crypto assets made up $445.5 billion of the total. Everything else on CME’s crypto menu shared the remaining roughly $24 billion.
The crypto suite averaged 196,000 contracts traded per day during the quarter. Open interest stayed steady at around 197,000 contracts.
The crypto numbers were part of CME Group’s broader quarterly earnings release, published on October 21. The company reported total revenue of $1.737 billion, up 13% from the same quarter a year earlier. Across every asset class it serves, CME averaged 29.4 million contracts traded per day.
CME launched a 24/7 trading model for crypto on May 29, 2026. Through Q3, the round-the-clock setup produced more than $3.7 billion in cumulative weekend notional volume. The busiest weekend came on August 21-23, 2026, when traders moved 69,600 contracts worth $554.7 million in notional value.
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Regulatory progress and optimism in Washington helped underlying crypto assets recover, with Bitcoin climbing 43% and Ether rising 70% from their Q2 lows.
CME’s crypto business saw a decrease in average daily notional value and in micro-contract volumes during the period. Micro contracts are the smaller-sized versions of CME’s futures, often used by individual traders and smaller firms.
New Bitcoin Cash and Uniswap futures launched on October 19, 2026, just days before the earnings release. Uniswap is a decentralized exchange token, so listing futures on it puts a DeFi asset onto one of traditional finance’s most established derivatives venues.