• Record May ADV in interest rate, metals and cryptocurrency products
• SOFR futures ADV grew 31% over May 2024
• International ADV increased 15% to 8.7 million contracts 

CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, reported it reached the highest May average daily volume (ADV) on record at 28.9 million contracts, an increase of 11% year-over-year. Market statistics are available in greater detail at https://cmegroupinc.gcs-web.com/monthly-volume.

May 2025 ADV across asset classes includes:

• Record May Interest Rate ADV of 16.2 million contracts
• Equity Index ADV of 6.6 million contracts
• Energy ADV of 2.6 million contracts
• Agricultural ADV of 1.6 million contracts
• Record May Metals ADV of 933,000 contracts
• Foreign Exchange ADV of 893,000 contracts
• Record May Cryptocurrency ADV of 197,000 contracts ($10 billion notional)

Additional May 2025 product highlights compared to May 2024:

• Interest Rate ADV increased 13%

• • SOFR futures ADV increased 31% to 4 million contracts
  • U.S. Treasury futures and options ADV increased 6% to 10.6 million contracts
  • Interest Rate options ADV increased 11% to 2.7 million contracts

John Edwards, Global Head of BrokerTec, CME Group, said:  BrokerTec’s overall average daily notional value (ADNV) for May was $936B, up 28% year-on-year (YoY) across benchmark cash U.S. Treasuries, European Government Bonds and U.S. and EU Repo on its dealer-to-dealer CLOB and D2C RFQ and streaming platforms.

U.S. Treasuries

BrokerTec U.S. Treasuries ADNV in May reached $101.1B, up 20% YoY as ongoing uncertainty related to tariffs and U.S. trade deficit weighed on bond markets. BrokerTec’s RV product suite reached $2.68B ADNV in May and was up 72% YoY.

U.S Repo

May was BrokerTec’s second-best month on record with ADNV of $352B, up 29% YoY.

We continue to benefit from demand for Specials activity as a result of market volatility in cash U.S. Treasuries as well as the quarterly refunding of 3s, 10s and 30s bonds mid month.

According to SIFMA research, Repo volumes are also increasing because of total U.S. Treasuries outstanding growing 6% to $28.6T at the end of March.

EU Repo 

May volumes for BrokerTec EU Repo were €307B ADNV, up 3% YOY.

• Equity Index ADV increased 15%

• • Micro E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures ADV increased 37% to 1.5 million contracts
  • Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures ADV increased 60% to 1.3 million contracts

• Energy ADV increased 6%

• • Record May Energy options ADV of 445,000 contracts

• Metals ADV increased 8%

• • Record monthly Micro Gold futures ADV of 347,000 contracts

• Cryptocurrency ADV increased 145%

• • Record monthly Ether futures ADV of 17,000 contracts
  • Micro Ether futures ADV increased 235% to 92,000 contracts
  • Micro Bitcoin futures ADV increased 95% to 65,000 contracts

• Micro Products ADV

• • Micro E-mini Equity Index futures and options ADV of 3 million contracts represented 45.3% of overall Equity Index ADV and Micro WTI Crude Oil futures accounted for 2.5% of overall Energy ADV

• International ADV increased 15% to 8.7 million contracts, with EMEA ADV up 14% to  6.4 million contracts and Asia ADV up 24% to 2 million contracts
• BrokerTec U.S. Repo average daily notional value (ADNV) increased 28.6% to $352 billion, European Repo ADNV increased 3% to €306.7 billion and U.S. Treasury ADNV increased 20% to $101.1 billion
• EBS Spot FX ADNV increased 27% to $67.8 billion and FX Link ADV increased 52% to 43,000 contracts ($2.9 billion notional per leg)
• Customer average collateral balances to meet performance bond requirements for rolling 3-months ending April 2025 were $97.2 billion for cash collateral and $162.9 billion for non-cash collateral

Paul Houston, Global Head of FX, CME Group, said:

In May, $142B of notional value per day was traded across CME Group’s FX futures, options and cash markets.

Some highlights for May include:

Futures and options

FX futures and options average daily notional volume (ADNV) of $75B (894K contracts).

Futures:

Comparing May ‘25 vs May ‘24, average daily notional volume (ADNV) grew significantly in the following:

• FX futures currency pairs:
  • JPY $15.2B (+23%) (175K contracts)
  • EUR $27B (+7%) (184K contracts)
  • BRL $1B (+176%) (56k contracts) monthly volume record 
  • ZAR $167M (+34%) (6K contracts)
  • INR $190M (+233%) (3.2K contracts).
  • KRW $111M (+1,866%) (1.2K contracts) monthly volume record.

• Strong monthly OI in:
  • EUR $106B (+20%) (752K contracts)
  • CAD $19B (+11%) (261K contracts)
  • NZD $3.6B (+10%) (61K contracts)
  • Scandis $2.8B (+75%) (16k contracts)
  • BRL $1.7B (+37%) (100K contracts).

The large open interest holder (LOIH) data provided by the CFTC also shows growing adoption via the number of customers holding ‘large’ open positions in our markets. According to CFTC data on 27 May:

• Emerging Market LOIH was 308, with growth in BRL futures, with 78 LOIH (+7% YOY) and ZAR futures with 50LOIH (+20% YoY).
• Majors LOIH was 905 – CAD was 113 LOIH (+11% YoY) and EUR was 305 LOIH (+2% YoY).

Options:  Options volumes continued their strong year with ADNV up 40% vs May 2024 and up 64% YTD. May saw strong growth in the following currency pairs:

• EUR (+63%) – monthly open interest record
• JPY (+19%)
• CAD (+80%)
• CHF (+40%)
• CNH (+30%).

FX Link: In May, FX Link traded $2.9B ADNV (43K ADV in contracts YTD, up 52%).

EBS

EBS ADNV was $67B in April, up 26% vs May 2024. EBS also had a record day for Taiwanese dollar NDF trading on 2 May with $6.1B ADV traded.

FX Volatility

The CME Group Volatility Index (CVOL) shows that the combined G5 CVOL index averaged 9.6 in May  2025.

Erik Norland, Chief Economist, CME Group said:

The Bloomberg Dollar Index shows a 0.6% decline in USD versus other currencies in May as fiscal concerns weighed on the U.S. currency. That said, the decline in the dollar was modest as fiscal concerns aren’t limited to the United States, with China, Japan and many European countries also running substantial government deficits. Among the currencies which  gained versus the USD were: GBP (+1%), EUR (+0.2%), AUD (+0.5%), CAD (+0.5%) and MXN (+0.9%).  The yen bucked the trend, weakening 0.7% versus USD.

Inflation fears and concerns about the long-term trajectory of budget deficits as well as a rating downgrade from Fitch, sent U.S. Treasury yields up 25-27bps across the curve. Some of this rise in U.S. yields may have been propelled by a sharp increase in the yields of Japanese government bonds, especially on the 10Y and 30Y. Meanwhile, Eurozone government bond yields were little changed as European inflation rates remained below those in the U.S. and Japan.

Source: CME