CME & Nasdaq Double Down: Nasdaq-100 Futures License Extended in Major Market Play

Wall Street's power players just locked in another round. CME Group and Nasdaq announced a multi-year extension of their Nasdaq-100 futures license—because why innovate when you can keep printing money with derivatives?

The deal cements CME's stranglehold on benchmark index futures while giving Nasdaq another revenue stream to distract from their crumbling IPO pipeline. Traders get more ways to bet on tech megacaps without touching actual stocks—perfect for our risk-averse, leverage-hungry era.

Fun fact: This contract first launched when Amazon still sold mostly books. Today? A $2 trillion index fueling endless arbitrage. Some things never change—especially Wall Street's addiction to financial engineering.

CME Group and Nasdaq announced a ten-year extension of CME Group’s exclusive license to offer futures and options on futures based on the Nasdaq-100 and other Nasdaq indexes, through 2039.

As the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group operates the largest equity index futures complex in the world. Nasdaq is a leading global provider of trading, clearing, exchange technology, listing, information and public company services.

“Extending our exclusive licensing agreement with Nasdaq will ensure that global market participants continue to have seamless access to our deeply liquid Nasdaq futures and options on futures, which are among the world’s most actively traded financial products,” said CME Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy. “Building on nearly 30 years of success, our partnership has enabled clients to manage risk or gain exposure to the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on Nasdaq, while providing significant capital efficiencies for those trading across our equity index complex.”

“The Nasdaq-100 Index® is a cornerstone of modern investing, reflecting the performance of companies at the forefront of innovation and economic transformation. For almost 30 years, our partnership with CME Group has helped build a robust derivatives ecosystem that supports investor confidence and market integrity. This ten-year extension reflects our shared commitment to delivering enduring value through trusted benchmark products, reinforcing the infrastructure that enables global participation in the equity markets,” said Adena Friedman, Chair and CEO of Nasdaq.

Nasdaq-100 futures were initially launched in 1996. In 1999, CME Group launched E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures, which have become one of the world’s most actively traded equity index futures contracts, with more than 2.8 billion contracts traded.

The average daily volume (ADV) of CME Group’s entire Nasdaq-100 futures and options on futures complex has grown more than 100% since the companies’ previous license extension agreement in 2019. More recently, across the entire suite of Nasdaq-100 futures and options on futures, ADV has climbed to more than 2.5 million contracts year-to-date, up 22% year over year. Within that suite, Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures Q2 ADV increased 39% to 1.3 million contracts as well.

Source: CME