BGC Partners' Sunrise Executes First Block Trade of Micro Bitcoin Options from CME Group

NEW YORK, April 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BGC Partners, Inc. (Nasdaq: BGCP) ("BGC"), a leading global brokerage and financial technology company, is excited to announce that BGC Financial L.P. has executed the first ever block trade of Micro Bitcoin options offered by CME Group via its Sunrise brand.

This transaction brought together two major market participants in the cryptocurrency space. Since 1Q 2022, BGC has been active in multiple segments of the digital marketplace, successfully arranging transactions in options on multiple listed ETFs, options on CME Group listed Bitcoin futures, and options on CME Group listed Micro Bitcoin futures.

BGC is actively engaged with the digital community to ensure it remains the trusted partner of choice in this rapidly evolving asset class. BGC's Lucera platform continues to expand its digital offering by building connections to digital custodians and providing connectivity to a variety of digital execution facilities. In addition, BGC's Fenics and Aurel brands anticipate offering fully electronic access to digital spot and options products by the end of this year. Finally, in anticipation of an active OTC wholesale cryptocurrency marketplace, BGC is establishing voice and hybrid OTC brokerage desks in major financial centers to facilitate the expected growth in this sector.

John Abularrage, who recently joined BGC as Co-Global Head of Brokerage, CEO of the Americas, commented on today's announcement, "This trade marries our best-in-class technology, infrastructure, regulatory discipline, and global reach. It is consistent with our 4Q 2021 earnings announcement of BGC's intention to enter the digital asset universe. This trade not only signifies an important step in the evolution of a marketplace searching for a regulated crypto space – it signifies BGC in America is back."

JP Aubin, BGC's Co-Global Head of Brokerage, Head of Listed Products, added, "As a global leader in listed products, this trade further facilitates BGC's market expansion and innovation. We continue to explore how we can best serve our clients and provide them with up-to-date solutions. With this trade, we are building the bridge between traditional institutions and crypto-native customers."

Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity and FX Products, said, "After just one week, we are encouraged by the activity we are seeing with these Micro-sized options, and are pleased with the liquidity and early support we're seeing from Sunrise and others early on. Building on the strength and liquidity of the underlying contracts, our Micro-sized options enable traders of all sizes to efficiently hedge market-moving events with greater precision and flexibility or fine-tune their cryptocurrency market exposure."

BGC Partners, Inc. ("BGC") is a leading global brokerage and financial technology company. BGC, through its various affiliates, specializes in the brokerage of a broad range of products, including Fixed Income (Rates and Credit), Foreign Exchange, Equities, Energy and Commodities, Shipping, and Futures. BGC, through its various affiliates, also provides a wide variety of services, including trade execution, brokerage, clearing, trade compression, post-trade, information, and other back-office services to a broad range of financial and non-financial institutions. Through its brands, including FMX™, Fenics®, Fenics Market Data™, Fenics GO™, BGC®, BGC Trader™, Capitalab®, and Lucera®, BGC offers financial technology solutions, market data, and analytics related to numerous financial instruments and markets. BGC, BGC Trader, GFI, Fenics, FMX, Fenics Market Data, Capitalab, and Lucera are trademarks/service marks and/or registered trademarks/service marks of BGC and/or its affiliates.

BGC's customers include many of the world's largest banks, broker-dealers, investment banks, trading firms, hedge funds, governments, corporations, and investment firms. BGC's Class A common stock trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "BGCP". BGC is led by Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit https://www.bgcpartners.com. You can also follow BGC at https://twitter.com/bgcpartners, https://www.linkedin.com/company/bgc-partners and/or https://ir.bgcpartners.com/Investors/default.aspx.

Statements in this document regarding BGC that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These include statements about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company's business, results, financial position, liquidity and outlook, which may constitute forward-looking statements and are subject to the risk that the actual impact may differ, possibly materially, from what is currently expected. Except as required by law, BGC undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see BGC's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors and Special Note on Forward-Looking Information set forth in these filings and any updates to such risk factors and Special Note on Forward-Looking Information contained in subsequent reports on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q or Form 8-K.

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SOURCE BGC Partners, Inc.