Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure, today announced record open interest across its global commodities futures markets of 35.2 million contracts on June 24, 2021, contributing to 10% year-over-year (“y/y”) growth in total open interest on ICE and surpassing the previous record set on June 25, 2020.
On June 24, ICE also hit record high open interest across its global natural gas futures markets of 19.1 million contracts. ICE's North American natural gas futures and options, which includes Henry Hub and U.S. Basis Markets contracts, is at record high open interest of approximately 22.8 million, with open interest in Henry Hub futures and options up 11% y/y.
TTF natural gas, which is used by the market as a global gas benchmark, is at record open interest of 3.2 million across futures and options, up 4% y/y. The growth of TTF is attracting new participants with the total number of participants trading TTF growing by 83% from 2016 to 2020, with the highest growth coming from those based in the U.S. Open interest in JKM LNG (Platts) futures, the Asian gas benchmark, is up 15% y/y. The number of participants trading JKM LNG futures has increased 25% since May 2020, with a significant contribution to growth coming from participants based in East Asia, a region considered to be the largest LNG-importing region in the world.
Across ICE’s global environmental complex, open interest hit a record 2.85 million contracts on June 22, up 8% y/y, reflecting how these markets allow our customers to price and manage climate risk. EU emission allowance (EUA) futures and options open interest is up 9% y/y and the North American environmental complex is at record open interest of more than 1.1 million contracts.
