CME is adding two contract sizes for each of BCH and UNI. Micro contracts represent one-tenth of the standard size, with cash settlement instead of cryptocurrency delivery at expiry.
CME’s four new futures contracts on Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Uniswap’s UNI token have an initial trade date of October 19, 2026. The exchange’s October 15 listing notice makes them available from Sunday, October 18, for that trade date on CME Globex and for clearing submissions through CME ClearPort.
CME announced the expansion on September 22, subject to regulatory review. The reviewed sources do not yet provide first-day trade counts or volume.
CME’s existing crypto market
BCH and UNI join CME’s single-asset futures range covering nine cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ether. In its September 22 announcement, the company attributed the expansion to client demand for tools to manage altcoin price risk. Ripple Prime President Noel Kimmel described institutions’ access requirements in the same release:
“Institutions managing cryptocurrency exposure need around-the-clock access to regulated derivatives”
CME reported that its crypto futures and options averaged 279,800 contracts a day in the first half of 2026, representing $8.3 billion in daily notional value. Those figures cover the product range before BCH and UNI were added, rather than opening-day volume for the new contracts.
CME’s October 16, 2026 post on its nine-asset crypto futures range before the BCH and UNI listing
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Standard and Micro contract sizes
The official specifications give the following trading codes and quantities per contract:
| Contract | Code | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin Cash | BCA | 250 BCH |
| Micro Bitcoin Cash | MCH | 25 BCH |
| UNI | UNI | 10,000 UNI |
| Micro UNI | MUN | 1,000 UNI |
Prices are quoted in U.S. dollars per unit of the underlying asset. The quantities in the table are therefore neither dollar contract values nor required margin deposits. The initial expiry list runs monthly from October 2026 through March 2027, followed by June, September and December 2027 and March 2028.
Cash settlement and broker access
Final settlement uses the CME CF Bitcoin Cash-Dollar Reference Rate for BCH and the CME CF Uniswap-Dollar Reference Rate for UNI. Trading normally ends at 4 p.m. London time on the last Friday of the contract month. If that date is a holiday in both London and the U.S., the cutoff moves to the preceding day that is a business day in at least one of the two.
Cash settlement. BCH or UNI is not delivered at expiry, so trading these contracts does not require a digital wallet.
CME’s 1-minute-32-second educational video, published May 12, 2021, explains the difference between physical delivery and cash settlement at expiry. The cash-settlement explanation starts at 00:48. This is background on how futures settle, not footage of the BCH and UNI launch.
Under CME’s access and trading rules, participants use an account with a futures broker. Margin is set according to a product’s volatility and liquidity, while clearing members can impose additional margin or position limits on their clients.
Globex’s seven-day schedule includes maintenance from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. Central Time on Saturdays and from 4 p.m. to 4:02 p.m. Monday through Friday. ClearPort’s specified maintenance window is Saturday from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. Weekend trades are recorded with the following business day’s trade date.
