The most popular cryptocurrency is currently priced at around $80,000.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is making a historic shift to 24/7 trading of cryptocurrency derivatives.
Bitcoin futures and options are now available for continuous trading seven days a week. The only break is a one-hour technical pause between 01:00 and 02:00 Moscow time on Sunday night. As noted by CoinDesk, this decision could theoretically lead to the disappearance of the market phenomenon known as CME gaps — price gaps that traders have used as market benchmarks for years.
CME is one of the largest futures exchanges in the world, serving as a center for trading commodity and financial derivatives. It launched Bitcoin futures contracts at the peak of the bull market in late 2017, when the price was below $20,000. It has long remained the largest regulated platform in the U.S. offering futures contracts.
As of the end of May, the monthly trading volumes of crypto futures on CME are around $140 billion, with open interest just below $10 billion. In comparison, Binance has open interest for similar futures at $7.8 billion, Bybit at over $4.2 billion, and Hyperliquid at $2.3 billion. Daily trading volumes for Bitcoin futures contracts were over $9 billion, $5 billion, and $2.3 billion respectively, according to Coingecko.
A gap is a visual break on the price chart of an asset. Since CME traded according to a traditional exchange schedule with closures on weekends, while the crypto market operated 24/7, the price of Bitcoin could change significantly over the weekend. By Monday's opening, the starting price would be at a new level, creating a gap relative to the Friday closing price. This distinguishes CME from classic crypto exchanges, where trading operates continuously with rare interruptions.
Traders used gaps as benchmarks: in technical analysis, it is believed that the price tends to return to the level of the previous session to "close" the gap. Statistically, this pattern does not always hold, but many investors took it into account in their strategies.
Now such gaps may disappear — CME futures will almost continuously reflect price movements, as is the case in the spot markets of exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, OKX, and others. However, the chart will not become fully continuous: the weekly one-hour pause (from 01:00 to 02:00 Moscow time on Sundays) may still create brief micro-gaps and spikes in volatility when trading resumes.
At the time of the launch of 24/7 trading, three gaps remain open, all formed this year. Two are above the current spot price of Bitcoin (~$73,000): around $80,000 and $78,500. The third is below the market, around $70,000.
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