CME Behind Binance as the Largest Bitcoin Futures Exchange
- The CME now ranks as the second-largest Bitcoin futures exchange in terms of notional open interest.
- Open interest refers to the total number of outstanding Bitcoin futures or options contracts in the market.
- CME took over Bybit and OKX with $2.6 billion and $1.78 billion in open interest, respectively.
- CME offers a BTC futures contract valued at 5 BTC and a microcontract equivalent to a tenth of a Bitcoin.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), a global derivatives marketplace based in Chicago and regulated primarily by the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), now ranks as the second-largest Bitcoin futures exchange, just behind Binance, the largest digital asset trading platform by market capitalization.
According to the data from Coinglass, a blockchain analytics platform, CME follows Binance and is followed by another platform called Bybit in terms of notional open interest. Interestingly, the open interest on the Chicago-based marketplace hit $3.58 billion on October 30, resulting in a two-place jump when compared to the previous week.
It is crucial to note that the CME took over Bybit and OKX with $2.6 billion and $1.78 billion in open interest, respectively, and is a few million away from Binance, which currently has an open interest of $3.9 billion. This shift in interest shows that investors are more open to putting their money on regulated platforms following the recent regulatory crackdown on crypto exchanges and blockchain-focused businesses.
CME offers a conventional Bitcoin futures contract valued at five BTC, alongside a micro contract, which is equivalent to a tenth of a Bitcoin. Notably, offshore exchanges primarily emphasize perpetual futures contracts. These differ from regular futures contracts as they lack an expiration date and utilize the funding rate mechanism to keep their price in sync with the market value.
Additionally, open interest refers to the total number of outstanding Bitcoin futures or options contracts in the market, measuring the money invested in BTC derivatives at any given moment. Therefore, open interest is actually a measure of the total capital coming in and out of the digital asset space.
Interestingly, CoinShares, an asset management platform, confirmed in its weekly report that the crypto market had seen its highest inflows in around a year. This week, the market raked in $326 million in investment, significantly higher than the $66 million a week before. As reported earlier by Bitnation, Bitcoin suddenly broke past the $34,000 price level on October 23 when CoinShares confirmed a fourth consecutive week of inflow in crypto.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
