Despite some controversial regulatory issues, volumes of Bitcoin futures trading continued to experience steady growth in Q3.
As it has been reported by the U.S.-based exchange known as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading continues to gain momentum attracting more and more traders. According to the report, in Q3 the average daily trading volume of Bitcoin futures increased by 41 percent in Q3 if compared with the trading volumes observed in Q2.
Trading Volumes Growth
It’s also important to emphasize that the trading volumes of Bitcoin futures have been continuously growing since the moment when they were introduced on the CME exchange in December 2017. Moreover, it is expected that this positive tendency will continue.
Throughout the third quarter of the current year, the average daily trading volume reached a mark of 5,053 Bitcoin futures contracts per day. On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, each Bitcoin contract includes 5 BTC. It means that on average a total number of 25,265 BTC worth approximately $162 million was transferred each trading day.
Open Interest
What is more, so-called open interest is also growing. This indicator reflects the amount of new money that is coming to the market.
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
— CME Group (@CMEGroup) October 17, 2018
Since the previous quarter, it has increased by 19%. Increasing open interest is considered to be a sign of growing interest and attention from the side of existing and potential market participants that are ready to enter the market. Moreover, such positive tendencies are able to strengthen the price movements that already exist.
CME’s Positions
As it has been already mentioned, at the current moment CME’s daily volume is equivalent to over USD162 million. Such results make the exchange a top-15 cryptocurrency platform in the spot markets as its volume can be compared with the volumes shown over the last 24 hours by such industry’s giants as Upbit based in South Korea and Coinbase Pro based in the U.S.
If we look at the trading volumes of exchanges that provide their users with an opportunity to work with a BTC/USD trading pair, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange will take the second position after BitMEX that is a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency derivatives platform.
Nevertheless, according to the CME’s CEO Terry Duff, the company doesn’t have any plans to offer any new cryptocurrency products despite its current success with BTC trading. In July, he said that before listing any other cryptocurrencies, they wanted to analyze the tendencies in BTC trading and six-eight months couldn’t be considered to be a proper period to make right conclusions.
Bitcoin Futures and Bitcoin Price
It is obvious that Bitcoin has fallen from its peak. While traders and investors still remember that golden period when it was needed to pay approximately $20, 000 to gey 1 Bitcoin, now it is traded for $6,540. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, a significant decline in the crypto markets that is observed this year has been caused by the Bitcoin futures launch.
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