According to a Thursday report by the Financial Times, Chicago-based futures exchange CME Group is on track to launch Bitcoin spot trading due to growing demand.
It is unclear when spot Bitcoin trading will become available on the exchange since the plan is yet to be finalized.
It is worth noting that CME Group has long been a major player in the crypto market. It initially launched Bitcoin futures in December 2017, a move that coincided with the peak of the bull run.
In May 2021, it also launched micro Bitcoin futures, responding to demand for futures contracts of smaller size.
According to data provided by CoinGlass, CME is currently in the lead when it comes to Bitcoin futures open interest with $9 billion. It is ahead of such major crypto native players as Binance, OKX, and BitMEX.
In early 2020, CME also launched Bitcoin options on its futures contracts. CME comes in second place in terms of options value, significantly lagging behind Deribit.
The growing demand for spot trading comes after the launch of several spot ETFs earlier this year.
According to the most recent data, spot Bitcoin ETFs managed to attract $303 million worth of inflows on Wednesday.