CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, today reported its February 2025 market statistics set a new monthly average daily volume (ADV) record of 33.1 million contracts, an increase of 12% year-over-year. In addition, its deeply liquid interest rate complex reached a monthly ADV record of 19.2 million contracts, driven by record monthly U.S. Treasury futures and options ADV of 13 million contracts and a 15% increase in SOFR futures volume.

Market statistics are available in greater detail at https://cmegroupinc.gcs-web.com/monthly-volume.

February 2025 ADV across asset classes includes:

• Record monthly Interest Rate ADV of 19.2 million contracts
• Equity Index ADV of 7.2 million contracts
• Energy ADV of 2.8 million contracts
• Record February Agricultural ADV of 2.1 million contracts
• Foreign Exchange ADV of 1.1 million contracts
• Metals ADV of 783,000 contracts
• Record February Cryptocurrency ADV of 221,000 contracts ($12.1 billion notional)

Additional February 2025 product highlights compared to February 2024:

• Interest Rate ADV increased 11%
  • Record monthly U.S. Treasury futures and options ADV of 13 million contracts
  • Record monthly 10-Year U.S. Treasury Note futures ADV of 3.6 million contracts
  • Record monthly 5-Year U.S. Treasury Note futures ADV of 3.1 million contracts
  • Record monthly 2-Year U.S. Treasury Note futures ADV of 1.7 million contracts
  • Record monthly 10-Year U.S. Treasury Note options ADV of 1.3 million contracts
  • SOFR futures ADV increased 15% to 4.3 million contracts
• Equity Index ADV increased 9%
  • Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures ADV increased 30% to 1.6 million contracts
  • Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures ADV increased 47% to 1.1 million contracts
  • Micro E-mini Dow Jones futures ADV increased 42% to 114,000 contracts
• Energy ADV increased 11%
  • Record February Energy options ADV of 552,000 contracts
  • Henry Hub Natural Gas futures ADV increased 16% to 676,000 contracts
  • Henry Hub Natural Gas options ADV increased 22% to 366,000 contracts
• Agricultural ADV increased 15%
  • Corn futures ADV increased 28% to 586,000 contracts
  • Soybean futures ADV increased 9% to 318,000 contracts
  • Chicago SRW Wheat futures ADV increased 24% to 184,000 contracts
• Foreign Exchange ADV increased 25%
  • Japanese Yen futures ADV increased 36% to 192,000 contracts
  • Canadian Dollar futures ADV increased 55% to 115,000 contracts

Paul Houston, global head of FX at CME Group, said in an email:

The strong start to 2025 continued in February with $157B of notional value traded each day across FX futures, options and cash markets.

Some highlights for February include:

Futures and options

FX futures and options average daily notional volume (ADNV) of $87B (1M contracts, up 23% on Feb 2024)

An all time record month for futures average daily open interest with 3.250M contracts ($297.4B notional). OI growth reflects liquidity and activity in the market and shows that market participants are actually taking and holding positions in the market, using futures to warehouse their risk.

Futures: Comparing February ‘25 vs February ‘24, ADNV grew significantly in the following:

• FX futures currency pairs:

• • CAD $8B (+46%) (115K contracts) .Single-day record volumes in CAD Futures on 2 Feb ($24B : 386k contracts)
  • CHF $4B (+18%) (29K contracts)
  • BRL $575M(+62%) (33K contracts) Single-day OI record in BRL Futures on 27 Feb ($2.7B : 157k contracts)
  • ZAR $183M (+100%) (7K contracts)
  • INR $135M (+140%) (2.3K contracts)

• Strong monthly OI in:

• • CAD $23B (+93%) (328K contracts)
  • CHF $14B (+66%) (98K contracts)
  • BRL $1.6B (+34%) (96K 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 Feb 21:

• Emerging Market LOIH was 290, with growth in BRL futures, with 90 LOIH (+8% YOY) and ZAR futures with 40 LOIH(+33% YoY).
• Majors LOIH was 1002 – CAD was 133 LOIH (+31% YoY) and AUD was 106 (+4% YoY).

Options: The strong start to 2025 for options continues, with February ADV even higher than January (itself the highest volume month since February 2020).  

Comparing February ‘25 vs February ‘24, options ADV was up 70%, with strong growth in the following currency pairs:

• EUR (+103%)
• CAD (+164%)
• JPY (+31%)

An all time record month for options average daily open interest in February (988K contracts).

FX Link: In February, FX Link traded $3.6B ADNV ,+75% vs Feb 24 (41K ADV in contracts, up 93%).

EBS

EBS ADNV at $70B, up 53% vs Feb 2024, driven by strong volumes in G3 currencies and on INR one-month NDFs.

FX Volatility

The CME Group Volatility Index (CVOL) shows that the combined G5 CVOL index averaged 8.74 in February 2025.

Erik Norland, chief economist at CME Group, said in an email:

While most exchange rates were largely unchanged from the beginning to the end of the month, there was considerable volatility as FX traders responded to speculation around U.S. tariff policies.  The one currency that did close the month significantly higher was the Japanese yen which gained more than 2.5% versus the dollar as the BoJ pledged to move ahead with further rate hikes.

• Metals ADV increased 33%
  • Record February Metals options ADV of 133,000 contracts
  • Micro Gold futures ADV increased 183% to 147,000 contracts
  • Gold options ADV increased 98% to 107,000 contracts
• Cryptocurrency ADV increased 234%
  • Record monthly Ether futures ADV of 15,000 contracts
  • Micro Ether futures ADV increased 374% to 94,000 contracts
  • Micro Bitcoin futures ADV increased 209% to 76,000 contracts
• Record monthly International ADV of 9.5 million contracts, with EMEA ADV up 17% to 7 million contracts and Asia ADV up 22% to 2.1 million contracts
• Micro Products ADV
  • Micro E-mini Equity Index futures and options ADV of 3 million contracts represented 40.9% of overall Equity Index ADV and Micro WTI Crude Oil futures accounted for 2.3% of overall Energy ADV
• BrokerTec European Repo average daily notional value (ADNV) increased 20% to €331.3 billion, U.S. Repo ADNV increased 8% to $323.8 billion and U.S. Treasury ADNV and increased 5% to $112.5 billion

John Edwards, global head of BrokerTec at CME Group, said in an email:

 BrokerTec transacted $909B in average daily notional value (ADNV) in February 2025, up 4% month-on-month (MoM) and up 21% 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 February was $112.5.B, up 9% MoM and up 5% YoY as Treasury markets digested news from the incoming administration, economic indicators and treasury supply, and Fed policy guidance.

Liquidity in the U.S. Treasury CLOB remained resilient throughout this period of increased volatility, with the average top of book depth in the 2Y note increasing by 55% YoY.  

BrokerTec’s RV product suite also reached $2.3B ADNV in February including $712M ADV in Butterflies.

 U.S. Repo

February was another strong month for U.S. Repo with an ADNV of $324B, up 9% YoY. The high levels of new issuance and quantitative tightening continued to boost our volumes in February. 

EU Repo

Continuing the strong start to 2025, EU Repo volumes on BrokerTec were €332B, up 20% YoY, and up 7% MoM.

During the month, as expected by market participants, the Bank of England reduced their refinancing rate by 25bps on 6 February, bringing the base down to 4.50% 

Erik Norland, chief economist at CME Group, said in an email:

U.S. 10Y Treasury yields fell by 40bps over the course of February while 2Y Treasuries shed around 25bps. The market is repricing the risk of a U.S. slowdown. Bond yields didn’t move as much in Europe, with German 10Y Bund yields declining by 12bps.

• EBS Spot FX ADNV increased 15% to $70.1 billion and FX Link ADV increased 93% to 41,000 contracts ($3.6 billion notional per leg)
• Customer average collateral balances to meet performance bond requirements for rolling 3-months ending January 2025 were $76.7 billion for cash collateral and $178.0 billion for non-cash collateral

Source: CME