CME, EBS FX Volumes Drop in July

CME Group’s FX volumes dropped in July, with the futures and options activity at four-year lows and OTC activity at the lowest thus far in 2025.

Average daily volume (ADV) across spot and NDFs on EBS was $56.1 billion per day, down 12.3% from June and down 9.1% year-on-year, the first time it has dropped below $60 billion this year. In 2024 as a whole, EBS averaged $59.4 billion, while in 2023 it averaged $56.7 billion.

There was a sharper drop off in CME’s FX futures ADV, however, on a monthly basis this is expected as June was a roll month with historically much higher activity, but on a year-on-year basis it was off 22%. At $66 billion, notional ADV in futures and options was the lowest since August 2021, however it is of note that July 2024 was the third busiest non-roll month for CME FX in 2024, thus a drop was to be expected.

Equally, volatility has dampened further, with the G5 CVOL index registering 8.5, down from 8.9 in June and 9.6 in May. CME observes that realised volatilities have fallen with “exceptional speed” from top-decile levels in April to bottom-decile levels in July across several pairs. EUR, JPY, CHF, MXN all saw lower realised volatilities vs. July 2024, it notes, adding that EUR and CHF are realising the lowest monthly volatility on record. 

The drop was exclusively in futures, with FX options ADV rising 25% year-on-year. In the first half of 2025, CME’s FX options suite hit $7 billion per day in notional ADV, up more than 50% on the 2024 average, helped by a doubling of trading in APAC, where volume (in terms of contracts) more than doubled from the second half of 2024.

FX Link also saw an annual decline in activity, ADV was $3.75 billion in July, down 21.9% year-on-year, however activity was slightly higher than in June, by some 2.8%.