By
Temitope Olatunji
April 26th, 2024
Binance briefly dethroned CME as the top exchange with the highest BTC Futures Open Interest rates on 6 February.
Binance and CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) are two major aggressive competitors for the BTC Futures top spot. On 6 February, Binance managed to reclaim the lead after CME’s BTC Futures Open Interest rates shrunk 13% in the previous week. Binance jumped to the top with 104.47K BTC against CME’s 101.4K BTC – a 3K BTC lead.
Binance’s prominence was due to CME’s dismal performance in the past week, according to Vetle Lunder, a senior analyst at K33 Research. Lunde singled BITO, a ProShares Strategy BTC ETF linked to BTC Futures contracts, for the decline of the CME.
Binance is back at the top.
CME OI is down 13% in the past week. The decline stems from BITO and reduced exposure from active market participants.
BITO exposure has reached a yearly low of 39,430 BTC, and active market participant exposure sits at 4mth lows of 46.6k BTC. pic.twitter.com/XNade7X11B
— Vetle Lunde (@VetleLunde) February 6, 2024
Lunde noted that BITO’s BTC exposure dropped massively to yearly lows of 39,430 BTC. BITO is one of the active market participants in CME. So, its reduced BTC exposure could explain CME’s decline.
Besides, the US Spot BTC ETF approvals precipitated the trend in reduced BTC exposure amongst CME market participants. Between January 8 and 30, active CME market players reduced their BTC market exposure by 38.4% (28,979 BTC), according to K33 Research.
However, Binance’s lead was short-lived. It was dethroned on the next day, 7 February. At the time of writing, CME’s overall BTC Futures Open Interest rates were 106.09K BTC, up 4.77% on the daily front, according to Coinglass data.
In contrast, Binance’s Futures BTC Open Interest rates dropped by 1.92% in the past 24 hours and held 103.57K BTC. That is a difference of 3000 BTC compared to CME’s Open Interest. It meant that Binance could regain the top spot again, especially if the US spot BTC ETFs momentum continues to negatively affect the BTC exposure of most CME’s active market players.
What’s Next for BTC Price as the ETF Narrative Ends
BTC’s price extended its consolidation around $43k despite CME and Binance duel to lead BTC Futures Open Interest rates. With the ETF narrative out of focus, K33 Research analyst Vitle Lunde told Bloomberg Crypto that BTC halving would be the next theme for BTC price action.
Acknowledging that the event might have already been priced in, Lunde quickly emphasized that the halving event would significantly reduce the annual BTC supply by miners to 164K BTC. However, the move by bankrupt crypto lender Genesis could affect the positive outlook as it filed a court action to sell its GBTC stake worth $1.6B to help pay creditors.