ICE's Total Futures and Options at Record Open Interest as Global Natural Gas and Power Markets Reach Record Levels of Liquidity
Record OI Across ICE's North American Natural Gas Markets
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), one of the world's leading providers of financial market technology and data powering global capital markets, and home to the largest and most liquid markets to trade energy derivatives, today announced record liquidity across its global natural gas and power markets, including record open interest (OI) across North American natural gas, as ICE reached record total OI across its futures and options markets of 130.5 million contracts.
On May 22, 2026, ICE's global natural gas markets hit record OI of 48 million, up 11% year-over-year (y/y), while ICE's global power markets reached record OI of 4 million, up 10 % y/y on May 25, 2026.
On the same day, ICE's North American natural gas futures and options markets hit record OI of 41.4 million, up 11% y/y with OI across ICE Henry Hub futures, the U.S. natural gas benchmark, up 13% y/y. OI across ICE's U.S. Financial Gas futures and options markets, which offer a suite of precise risk management tools that reflect the supply and demand dynamics of 70 distinct North American natural gas hubs, is up 8% y/y.
"Interest in ICE's natural gas and power markets remains strong as participants hedge regional and international price dynamics, pipeline constraints, infrastructure investments and evolving energy requirements," said Trabue Bland, SVP of Futures Markets at ICE. "The shifting picture for global LNG trade routes is linking natural gas markets across regions, while data center expansion is adding a new layer of demand-side pressure - both of which could tighten the supply and demand balance and weigh on basis spreads."
"The record open interest reflects how participants worldwide turn to ICE's deeply liquid energy markets to navigate the increasingly interconnected and dynamic price environment we are in. That liquidity, combined with ICE's portfolio margining methodology, IRM 2, is crucial for our customers who benefit from a margin model that captures correlations across energy exposures when they are trading diversified or hedged portfolios across ICE, resulting in precise margin treatment," continued Bland.
In addition to Henry Hub, ICE is home to the broadest range of natural gas benchmarks, including the global natural gas benchmark TTF, Canadian natural gas benchmark AECO, U.K. natural gas benchmark NBP, and ICE JKM LNG (Platts), the benchmark price for natural gas for North-East Asia. Sitting alongside natural gas markets, ICE offers hundreds of power futures and options contracts spanning U.S. regional hubs, the U.K., and continental Europe.
ICE's commodity markets hit record OI of 77 million on May 22, 2026, while energy options hit record OI of 31 million. ICE global energy markets OI is up 8% y/y at 72 million.
About Intercontinental Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE) is a Fortune 500 company that designs, builds, and operates digital networks that connect people to opportunity. We provide financial technology and data services across major asset classes helping our customers access mission-critical workflow tools that increase transparency and efficiency. ICE's futures, equity, and options exchanges -- including the New York Stock Exchange -- and clearing houses help people invest, raise capital and manage risk. We offer some of the world's largest markets to trade and clear energy and environmental products. Our fixed income, data services and execution capabilities provide information, analytics and platforms that help our customers streamline processes and capitalize on opportunities. At ICE Mortgage Technology, we are transforming U.S. housing finance, from initial consumer engagement through loan production, closing, registration and the long-term servicing relationship. Together, ICE transforms, streamlines, and automates industries to connect our customers to opportunity.
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Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 -- Statements in this press release regarding ICE's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see ICE's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors in ICE's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, as filed with the SEC on February 5, 2026.
Category: Exchanges
SOURCE: Intercontinental Exchange
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