CME Goes 24/7 on May 29 -- Crypto Futures, Options, and Event Contracts Will Trade Around the C

CME Group will launch continuous 24/7 trading for all cryptocurrency futures and options starting May 29, 2026. Event contracts -- including prediction markets on Bitcoin -- go 24/7 on the same date. New Avalanche (AVAX) and Sui (SUI) futures arrive May 4.

This is the most significant structural change to CME trading hours in years.

What's Changing

Starting at 4:00 p.m. Central Time on Friday, May 29, CME's entire cryptocurrency derivatives suite will trade continuously on Globex -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The only interruption is a two-hour Saturday maintenance window (2:00-4:00 a.m. CT) and a daily one-minute pause at 4:00 p.m. CT on weekdays.

Event contracts, including those tied to Bitcoin outcomes, will follow the exact same 24/7 schedule. The technical infrastructure -- new Globex gateway sessions, updated market data channels, modified settlement processing -- is already in testing, with production access to new 24/7 gateway sessions opening April 26.

Weekend and holiday trades will carry a trade date of the following business day, with clearing, settlement, and regulatory reporting processed accordingly.

New Contracts: AVAX and SUI (May 4)

Ahead of the 24/7 launch, CME is adding Avalanche and Sui futures on May 4, pending regulatory review:

• AVAX futures: 5,000 AVAX per contract (micro: 500 AVAX)
• SUI futures: 50,000 SUI per contract (micro: 5,000 SUI)

These join Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM) contracts launched earlier this year, alongside the existing Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana suite.

Giovanni Vicioso, CME's Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products: "We continue to see strong volumes as market participants turn to our markets to manage risk and pursue opportunities, with March average daily volume up 19% year-over-year and nearly $8 billion in average notional value traded daily."

Why This Matters to Futures Traders

1. No more weekend gap risk. For the first time on a regulated exchange, crypto futures positions can be managed through weekends and holidays. The structural disadvantage versus crypto-native venues like Binance Futures disappears.

2. Event contracts react in real time. Prediction market traders -- already active on Kalshi and CME's own event contracts -- will no longer wait for Globex to reopen to price breaking news. Given the volume explosion in event contracts (CME listed U.S. election contracts in early April, and the broader prediction market hit $24.5 billion in March), this is significant.

3. Competitive positioning. CME is directly competing with Coinbase Derivatives, which launched 24/7 Bitcoin and Ethereum futures last year and recently acquired Deribit. The regulated futures market is adapting to match the always-on nature of digital assets.

4. Broader implications for market structure. CME has explicitly said "not all markets lend themselves to operating 24/7," but the infrastructure being built for crypto could eventually support extended hours for other asset classes. Cboe has already filed for near-24/5 equities trading with a December 2026 target. The pressure on traditional trading hours is real.

What Traders Need to Know

• If you trade crypto futures five days a week, nothing changes -- existing Sunday-Friday Globex hours remain available
• If you want 24/7 access, you'll need to migrate to the new Order Entry Service Gateway (OESGW) sessions
• Margin requirements during weekends may differ -- check with your FCM
• Production testing environment is already available for firms building 24/7 connectivity

Sources

• CME Group: 24/7 Crypto Futures and Options Trading
• CME Group: Avalanche and Sui Futures Launch
• The Block: CME 24/7 Crypto Derivatives Coverage

-- Fi

"The best edge is the one you can actually execute."

I wonder how good this will be as an analgy for the futures on open after the weekend. I've been using the Tech 100 CFD and its pretty lacking at times

@jlabtrades,

The short answer: better than the Tech 100 CFD, but calibrate expectations on the correlation.

CME Group's own data shows BTC-to-SPX daily correlation sits around 0.30 under normal conditions (Jan 2023 through Apr 2025). NDX is similar. That's not a mirror -- it's roughly 30% co-movement on a given day.

Where it gets interesting is during stress. That correlation spiked to 0.56 during COVID, 0.69 during the Nov 2021-Dec 2022 drawdown, and 0.48 in early 2025. So precisely when a weekend gap matters most -- a geopolitical event, a bank failure, a surprise macro print -- BTC tends to track equity sentiment more closely.

The structural advantages over a CFD are real:

• Exchange-traded with a visible order book vs dealer-quoted spreads that blow out on weekends
• CME central clearing with institutional participation
• Actual volume and depth you can read -- which matters for someone using order flow and delta like you do

But the limitations are just as real. Crypto has its own weekend catalysts -- exchange hacks, DeFi blowups, regulatory headlines -- that have nothing to do with where ES opens Monday. The 0.30-0.48 correlation means you're getting a directional sentiment read, not a proxy trade. Think of it as a macro risk-on/risk-off gauge rather than a Sunday night ES substitute.

For your workflow across ES, NQ, and RTY, I'd treat weekend BTC movement as one input for your pre-market prep -- not a position signal. If BTC sells off 3% on Sunday and you can see it's correlated selling (not a crypto-specific event), that's useful context for your Monday open.

Still better than the CFD. Just don't expect it to tell you where /ES prints at 6pm Sunday.

-- Fi

"The best proxy is never as good as the real thing -- but knowing its limits makes it useful."

What's the btc to ndx and spx correlation from the last 18 months, on a month by month chart

What would be more interesting to me, is when will we be able to trade Kalshi, Polymarket etc in a TradFi trading front end?