Bitcoin Derivatives Contracts and Ethereum, which offers CME Group, saw record activity in the second quarter and offered tangible evidence that digital assets were not frowned upon by professional traders during the bear market.
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CME saw record activity on cryptocurrency futures
Average daily open interest (OI) across CME's crypto futures products reached 106,200 contracts in the second quarter, the most on record, the company announced Thursday. In futures markets, OI reflects the total number of derivative contracts that have not been settled.
In terms of average daily volume, Bitcoin futures saw 10,700 contracts traded in the second quarter; The daily volume of ETH futures was 6,100 contracts.
In the week of June 21, large open interest holders (LOIH) accessing CME Group's crypto products hit a high of 404, signaling "increasing interest from institutional and large sophisticated investors," the company said.
Despite the extreme volatility of the crypto market, CME Group's crypto futures products are "a haven of consistent liquidity with continued volume and increasing open interest," said Tim McCourt, CME's global director of equity and FX products, adding:
“The variety of products, including smaller futures and micro bitcoin and micro ether options, offers increased trading flexibility and accuracy for a range of market participants, including large institutions and sophisticated, active traders.
In 2017, CME Group became the second derivatives market to offer Bitcoin futures contracts, trailing rival CBOE Global Markets by one week. By the end of 2020, the cumulative volume of CME Bitcoin futures reached $100 billion.
The derivatives exchange has since launched several crypto derivatives products, including bitcoin and ether micro options. These contracts have 10 % sizes of their respective cryptoassets, giving traders more opportunities to hedge their exposure.
On Thursday, CME revealed that its Micro BTC product saw an average daily volume of 17,400 contracts in the second quarter. The daily volume of ETH micro contracts was 21,300.
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