CME Highlights Options, New FX Spot+ Peak, as FX Volumes Drift

CME Group closed out 2025 with December FX volumes drifting slightly year-on-year at both the futures and OTC businesses, however it has, at the same time, seen notable gains in its FX options product suite and a new high for FX Spot+.

Average daily volume (ADV) across FX futures and options was $93 billion in notional terms, representing a 4.7% decline in activity from the same month in 2024 (in absolute contract terms ADV was down 10% at 1.019 million). CME reports solid gains in year-on-year activity in three emerging market pairs, BRL, MXN and INR, it also says it hit a single day open interest record for FX futures of 3.1 million contracts, with a notional value of around $296 billion, on 11 December. New single-day records were also set in JPY on the 9^th (at $37 billion), and AUD ($20 billion) on 11 December.

Whilst FX futures activity did not match the year-on-year growth reported by Cboe FX and 360T earlier this month (and was slightly more than Euronext FX’ decline), CME does report solid growth in its options on futures franchise in what it says was a record-breaking year for the product line.

While it does not provide specific notional or contract values, CME says ADV in FX options was up 26% in 2025 on the previous year, with 94% of volume traded electronically on its central limit order book. Open interest records were set in JPY, CNH, MXN and BRL, as well as EUR/GBP, during the year, the overall OI in FX options also hit an all-time high at $128 billion in March as markets approached “Liberation Day”.

CME also reports another new high for FX Spot+, which was launched earlier this year. Again on 11 December, a new single day record of $8.6 billion was traded on the new venue. The Merc says over 50 firms have “actively traded” on Spot+, 35 of which were banks that had not previously interacted with FX futures.

FX Link, which is part of the FX Spot+ process, also closed out on a strong note, with its second highest ADV of the year at $4.7 billion. This is up 30.6% on November, and up 74.1% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, EBS, CME’s OTC FX business, reports ADV of $51 billion, which was actually its lowest volume marker of the year and its lowest since February 2024. Activity was down 2.9% from November, which was in turn the lowest in 2024 to that point, and down 8.6% year-on-year.