CME plans bitcoin cash and uniswap futures as global inflation data looms

CME plans bitcoin cash and uniswap futures for Monday

CME Group, one of the world's largest derivatives marketplaces, plans to start offering futures on bitcoin cash (BCH) and uniswap (UNI) on Monday, Oct. 19, pending regulatory review. Both standard and micro contracts are on the launch schedule.

Futures are contracts linked to the price of an asset at a later date, and a micro contract is a smaller version of a standard one. CME's own launch page lists the two new products, which CoinDesk reported as part of its look at the week starting Oct. 19.

The same week brings inflation reports from several major economies and the October flash PMIs, plus earnings from companies with crypto exposure. CoinDesk notes that last week's key U.S. inflation reports had already set the tone, and that price data from other economies this week may also help shape market direction.

Dates and data points to watch

• Oct. 19, 8:30 a.m. ET: Canada's September inflation report. The previous year-on-year reading was 3.0% and the previous monthly reading was -0.1%.
• Oct. 20, 8:30 a.m. ET: U.S. September housing starts, estimated at 1.30 million, and building permits, estimated at 1.40 million.
• Oct. 21, 2 a.m. ET: U.K. September inflation, with a previous year-on-year reading of 3.1% and core year-on-year reading of 2.6%.
• Oct. 22, 8:30 a.m. ET: U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ending Oct. 17, estimated at 200,000.
• Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m. ET: Japan's September national inflation, with a previous year-on-year reading of 1.9%.
• Oct. 23: Flash October PMIs for the eurozone at 4 a.m. ET (previous 53.1) and the U.S. at 9:45 a.m. ET (previous 58.4).

The Purchasing Managers Index, or PMI, is a survey-based measure of how different parts of an economy are performing, and a composite reading combines those results.

Token holders vote as deadlines land

Several crypto projects have governance votes closing during the week. Governance votes are decisions made by holders of a project's token rather than by a company.

• WalletConnect Network is voting on a power-law APY formula and a separate RewardWeight system aimed at improving staking incentives. Voting ends Oct. 19.
• ZKsync is voting on resubmitting its v31 protocol upgrade with corrected calldata, to add a Priority Mode for chains that settle on Ethereum's layer 1 and to unify the Era and ZKsync OS codebases. Voting ends Oct. 19.
• QuickSwap is voting on deprecating its Soneium deployment and removing that network from its landing page. Voting ends Oct. 21.
• Arbitrum DAO is voting on updated layer-1 pricing parameters for the Glamsterdam upgrade, a layer-1 voting recovery system, a transfer of 1,700 ETH to the ADG and Treasury strategies, and adopting USDG as a core strategic initiative. Voting ends Oct. 22.
• Starknet is holding a non-binding signal vote on researching a move to become an independent post-quantum layer 1. Voting ends Oct. 22.

Ethereum's All Core Devs Testing call No. 101 is also scheduled for Oct. 19, with Glamsterdam and Hegotá testing on the agenda. CoinDesk's list also includes an Optimism veto-only vote covering Unichain's sequencer operations.

CoinShares ETF set to stop trading as it winds down

CoinShares' bitcoin and ether ETF is scheduled to halt trading before the market opens on Oct. 21 as the fund liquidates, according to an SEC filing referenced by CoinDesk. An ETF is a fund that trades on a stock exchange, so this one will stop changing hands on the exchange as it is closed out.

Earnings from CME and Tesla

CME Group reports earnings before the market opens on Oct. 21, with a listed estimate of $2.98. Tesla reports after the close the same day, with a listed estimate of $0.40. Nasdaq and Blackstone report before the market opens on Oct. 22, with listed estimates of $1.02 and $1.29. CoinDesk notes that most of these companies' business is not directly tied to crypto.

What is confirmed

• CME Group plans to offer bitcoin cash and uniswap futures, in standard and micro sizes, on Oct. 19, pending regulatory review.
• The CoinShares bitcoin and ether ETF is scheduled to stop trading before the market opens on Oct. 21 as it liquidates.
• The economic data releases, central bank-related inflation readings and PMI dates listed above appear on CoinDesk's published calendar for the week.
• The governance votes named above have the closing dates listed by CoinDesk.

What is still unclear

CME's launch is described as pending regulatory review, and the source material does not say whether that review has been completed or what it will decide. The calendar gives previous readings and estimates for the economic data, but not the results, because those reports had not yet been published. The source material is also cut off partway through the description of the Optimism vote, so the full details of that proposal are not available here.

Sources

• CoinDesk