The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has become the largest bitcoin futures exchange by number of open contracts as institutional interest in bitcoin continues to grow.
- As of Tuesday, open interest on the CME stood at $1.66 billion, the highest among the major derivatives exchanges that including OKEx, Binance and Bybit, according to data from crypto data analytic site Skew.
- CME now accounts for 18.1% of the total global open interest on Tuesday, currently sitting at approximately $9.18 billion.
- Skew's data also shows that CME logged the highest trading volume for its bitcoin futures contracts on Dec. 28.
- "Institutional investors were eager to trade bitcoin again yesterday after a few days off," Norwegian cryptocurrency analysis firm Arcane Research wrote in a tweet earlier Tuesday.
- CME's bitcoin futures products have seen rapid growth this year because of a surge in institutional capital inflows to the No. 1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization and its derivative markets.
- Bitcoin's price passed $28,000 on Sunday, and many have attributed the price rally to the new institutional money flowing to the cryptocurrency.
See also: CME Announces Ether Futures Contracts