Bitcoin Futures Trading Rose 41 Percent in Q3: CME

Bitcoin futures trading volumes continued to rise in Q3, with derivatives exchange CME reporting a 41 percent quarter-over-quarter increase in average daily volume.

Bitcoin Futures Volumes See Major Bump in Q3

During Q3, the exchange averaged 5,053 contracts — each equivalent to 5 BTC — traded during each daily trading session, representing 25,265 BTC in volume. Open interest in CME’s bitcoin futures market saw a significant bump as well, rising 19 percent quarter-over-quarter to an average of 2,873.

In Q3, Bitcoin futures average daily volume rose 41% and open interest was up 19% over Q2 . Learn how market participants are using BTC to manage risk in changing markets. https://t.co/Yt41SzsHku pic.twitter.com/Kw4OX0QaKT

— CMEGroup (@CMEGroup) October 17, 2018

At the current exchange rate, CME’s daily volume is equivalent to more than $162 million, which would make the platform a top-15 cryptocurrency exchange in the spot markets with volume comparable to what South Korean giant Upbit and U.S. platform Coinbase Pro have seen over the past 24 hours. Among exchanges that offer a BTC/USD trading pair, CME’s market would rank second, trailing only Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency derivatives platform BitMEX.

Even though CME has seen a steady increase in BTC trading volume, CEO Terry Duffy has said that the firm is not rushing to list any new cryptocurrency products.

“Before we get into any other cryptocurrencies, we’re going to see how this one goes, and I think that six to eight months as a listing of bitcoin is not a good enough barometer to decide what your future should be for any other cryptocurrency,” he said in July. “I will not just put products up there to see where they’re going to go. I will take a wait and see approach with Bitcoin for now.”

Institutions Warm up to Bitcoin

As CCN reported, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo, citing research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, recently credited the bitcoin futures markets on CME and CBOE — each of which launched last December — with popping the cryptocurrency bubble and helping the asset class attain a “more sustainable” level.

Concurrently, he said that the CFTC has observed more institutional investors interacting with the flagship cryptocurrency and its peers, signaling maturation within a crypto ecosystem that was long almost exclusively the province of retail investors.

Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts from TradingView.

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