CME is a stalwart of traditional finance, a Chicago-based firm whose business covers a wide span of financial, commodity and agricultural futures and options. The timing of it overtaking Binance, a crypto-focused exchange, is poignant. Wall Street firms like BlackRock are increasingly steering the narrative around bitcoin and the rest of crypto, by trying, for instance, to introduce bitcoin and ether (ETH) ETFs in an attempt to open up crypto investing to a broader group of people. Such financial heavyweights are accustomed to doing business on a highly regulated exchange like CME, as opposed to Binance, which has run into trouble with U.S. regulators.
