The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group has expanded its cryptocurrency offerings to include micro Ether futures contracts sized at 0.1 ETH, giving institutional and individual traders another product to gain exposure to ETH.

Hacked cryptocurrency trading platform BitMart has said it will use its own money to reimburse victims of the security breach that saw hackers steal up to $196 million in various cryptocurrencies.

Leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, OpenSea, has signaled plans for an initial public offering (IPO), leading some cryptocurrency users to criticize the platform, as they were expecting a token airdrop.

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Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• CME Group Launches Micro Ether Futures
• BitMart to Compensate Victims of $196 Million Hack
• OpenSea’s IPO Plans Draw Criticism From Crypto Users
• What is Staking?
• Sponsored: The Bybit Next Level event is coming your way — tune in for a chance to win up to $150 in bonuses!

CME Group Launches Micro Ether Futures

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group has expanded its cryptocurrency offerings to include micro Ether futures contracts sized at 0.1 ETH, giving institutional and individual traders another product to gain exposure to ETH.

The micro ETH futures are cash-settled and join other crypto derivatives products at the CME, including Bitcoin futures, micro Bitcoin Futures, and options on both BTC and ETH futures contracts.

The CME Group’s global head of alternative investment products, Tim McCourt, said the offering allows investors to “hedge their spot Ether price risk or more nimbly execute Ether trading strategies.”

CME Group first launched its Bitcoin futures contracts in December 2017 at the height of a major bull run for most top cryptocurrencies. Last month, BTC futures volumes fell in favor of ETH futures om CME, as described in CryptoCompare’s November 2021 Exchange Review

BitMart to Compensate Victims of $196 Million Hack

Hacked cryptocurrency trading platform BitMart has said it will use its own money to reimburse victims of the security breach that saw hackers steal up to $196 million in various cryptocurrencies.

While BitMart says the hackers stole $150 million in cryptoassets, blockchain security and data analytics firm Peckshield points to losses closer to $200 million. In an official statement, the exchange wrote that it has completed initial security checks and identified the affected assets, and pointed to a stolen private key as the cause for the hack.

According to the company, the affected wallets on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain networks carried a “small percentage” of the exchange’s assets.

After the hackers transferred funds off of BitMart’s wallets, they used decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch to swap the stolen tokens for ether. They then moved the funds to privacy mixer Tornado Cash to make the funds harder to trace.

OpenSea’s IPO Plans Draw Criticism From Crypto Users

Leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace has signaled plans for an initial public offering (IPO), leading some cryptocurrency users to criticize the platform, as they were expecting a token airdrop.

OpenSea has recently announced it hired former Lyft CFO Brian Robert to work as its chief financial officer as well. Roberts, who helped Lyft go public, told Bloomberg he is already planning OpenSea’s IPO.

Reacting to OpenSea potentially going public through an IPO, some users quickly criticized the company, believing it should choose community ownership and issue a governance token instead.

OpenSea, it’s worth noting, has not said it will or will not issue a token. Rival NFT marketplaces like Rarible and SuperRare have already issued their own tokens this year.

What is Staking?

You have likely heard of staking by now as a way to earn passive income on your holdings, but you may be wondering what it exactly is? Put simply, staking is a way to earn interest on your crypto holdings by locking cryptoassets to help validate transactions on their underlying networks.

Staking is similar to mining on Proof-of-Work (PoW) networks with the advantage of being less resource-intensive. Staking coins directly on the blockchain may be complicated for some users, but several cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets now offer services simplifying the process.

Learn more via CryptoCompare’s staking guide.

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