Traders Magazine 0 Shares Tim McCourt, global head of equity index and alternative investment products at CME Group, said there has been a significant increase in the institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies as the exchange plans to launch Ether futures next month. CME has announced it intends to launch Ether futures on February 8. The new contract will be cash-settled and based on the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate, a once-a-day reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of Ether. Tim McCourt, CME Group McCourt told Markets Media: “We introduced an Ether reference rate in May 2018 which is a regulated benchmark using the same exchanges and methodology as our Bitcoin reference rate.”