CME Group posts record $469.5 billion in crypto derivatives volume in Q3

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. Bitcoin and Ether did the heavy lifting 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. The weekend shift 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 o...