Bitcoin's "CME Gap" Could Become History as CME Bitcoin Futures Will Support 24/7 Trading

BlockBeats News, May 28th, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) will officially support Bitcoin futures and options for 24/7 trading starting this Friday, with only a 1-hour system maintenance window from 22:00 to 23:00 UTC on Sundays. This means that the long-awaited "CME gap" mechanism will essentially disappear. In the past, due to the CME Bitcoin futures pausing trading from Friday close to Sunday, while the BTC spot market continued to operate, a so-called "CME gap" would often form, leading to a significant number of traders engaging in "gap-filling" trades.

Analysts believe that this move signifies CME's further alignment with the crypto market's native 24/7 trading structure, which helps reduce institutional weekend risk exposure and enhances hedging efficiency. However, institutional liquidity currently remains primarily concentrated in ETF options and offshore perpetual futures markets. Volmex Labs CEO Cole Kennelly stated that the open interest in the BlackRock IBIT ETF options is around $27 billion to $30 billion, while CME Bitcoin options are only around $800 million to $900 million.

As of now, there are still three unfilled CME gaps in the market, with two above the current BTC price, located around $80,000 and $78,500 respectively, and one below $70,000.