CME is letting traders bet on bitcoin volatility, not price, and two firms have already placed bets

MarketsShareShare this articleCopy linkX iconX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailCME is letting traders bet on bitcoin volatility, not price, and two firms have already placed betsMonarq and DV Chain kick off trading in CME's bitcoin volatility index futures.By Omkar Godbole|Edited by Shaurya Malwa Jun 8, 2026, 8:19 a.m. 2 min readMake preferred on What to know: CME Group has launched bitcoin volatility index futures tied to the CME CF Bitcoin Volatility Index, allowing traders to speculate directly on expected four-week BTC price swings.Monarq and DV Chain executed first block trades last week. The new contracts let investors trade and hedge volatility itself, rather than bitcoin’s price direction, enabling strategies around events such as U.S. inflation data releases.CME’s bitcoin BTC$62,945.93 volatility index futures began trading last week, offering investors a new way to trade and hedge price volatility. DV Chain and Monarq Asset Management executed the first block trades, kicking off trading in the contracts.These volatility contracts track the CME CF Bitcoin Volatility Index (BVX), which represents the market's expectations for bitcoin volatility over four weeks. Their debut allows traders to take positions directly on expected price turbulence rather than just price direction.That distinction matters because most derivatives, including futures, perpetual futures and options, require a view on where price is going. Volatility futures eliminate that complexity, letting traders express a view purely on how BTC will move in either direction. That opens the door to a new set of hedging and portfolio strategies that were previously difficult to execute on regulated venues. Think of positioning for how much bitcoin might move around events like this week's U.S. inflation data – traders can go long or short volatility depending on their outlook.Shiliang Tang, CEO of Monarq, called the launch a positive step in broadening regulated volatility offerings. "As bitcoin c…

CME is letting traders bet on bitcoin volatility, not price, and two firms have already placed bets

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