A futures contract (a currency futures) in which the underlying is the exchange rate of bitcoins against a currency (broadly a cryptocurrency against a currency). The newly introduced, cash-settled futures– December 2017) are subject to a set of risk and credit controls including position limits and intraday limits, margin requirements (an initial margin of 35%), among others.

The exchange rate is based on the so-called bitcoin reference rate (BRR)- a mechanism introduced by CME (CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate) in November 2016. This rate provides a reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of bitcoin with a daily fixing (one time fixing per day).