Bitcoin Futures Volume Breaks Records on CME

Chicago Mercantile Exchange smashed records recently with its Bitcoin futures in both volume and open interest. In a new report, CME group reveals that in May, the firm showed massive growth with 223 new trading accounts. This makes is the most successful month for Bitcoin futures product since launching in December 2017.

The average daily volume ended at 13,777 contracts for the month - or about $515 million in notional USD-traded value. This is up 36 percent since April and 250 percent annually.

Fundstrat’s head of research, Tom Lee has said:

“This is very bullish as the rise in Bitcoin futures volume reflects incremental institutional money.”

With CME posting new highs for Bitcoin futures, Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe). For those that don’t know, Cboe is the world’s largest options market, which is stepping away from the market.

Before we go any further though, it’s worth saying that we aren’t financial investors and this isn’t financial advice. Please do your own research before putting your money in a cryptocurrency and always remember to trade safe!

The rise in the price of cryptocurrencies has been often accompanied by an increase of general interest by big institutional investors. At the end of 2017, we saw a lot more people enter the market who probably never had even heard of cryptocurrency and get involved with the space.

During this time, Cboe became the first US exchange to launch Bitcoin futures but it is now expected to settle its last Bitcoin futures contract next week on June 19th following an announcement stating that it would not issue a new Bitcoin futures market in March and that it would reassess trading its derivatives product, Cboe Bitcoin (USD) Futures (XBT)

“CFE is not adding a Cboe Bitcoin (USD) (“XBT”) futures contract for trading in March 2019. CFE is assessing its approach with respect to how it plans to continue to offer digital asset derivatives for trading. While it considers its next steps, CFE does not currently intend to list additional XBT futures contracts for trading. Currently listed XBT futures contracts remain available for trading.”

You can see the full report here.