CME Group Announces Bitcoin Futures Trading Volume Up 93%
A couple of months ago, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, known as CME, announced that they will start trading bitcoin futures. At that time, the decision led to an increase in cryptocurrency prices, despite initial debates whether futures trading on the crypto market was feasible.
Now, recent reports indicate that the average trading volume of CME has increased by approximately 93% in the second quarter of 2018, compared to the year’s first quarter. Apart from this, in a tweet, CME has also announced that the rate of open interest/open contracts for bitcoin futures has also increased considerably, now reaching a number of 2,400 – which is a 58% increase from the first quarter.
It is important to keep in mind that the CME Group isn’t the first global exchange to trial out bitcoin futures trading. The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), which is the biggest options exchange in the United States, launched the feature on December 10, whereas the CME Group launched it on the 17th of December. So far, the CBOE has not released a statement regarding transaction volume increases.
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco published a report a while back, stating that the bitcoin price fall after it hit the $20,000 price, can be blamed on bitcoin futures. According to them, ‘the rapid run-up and subsequent fall in the price does not appear to be a coincidence’. Now, as bitcoin is on another price rally, it is expected that the announcement will positively influence the price. Regardless, the market is still unsure of the influence that bitcoin futures played on the market price.
For those who do not know, a futures contract represents an agreement between two parties, to purchase or sell an asset at a certain future price and date. It is one of the newest trading options available for bitcoin.
Based on everything that has been outlined so far, according to the CME Group statement, bitcoin futures trading is once again gaining momentum, hence leading to increased prices.