Bitcoin Investment

CME Bitcoin Futures Trading Breaks Record, Averaging $370 Million Per Day

Julio Gil-Pulgar · @gil_pulgar | Aug 30, 2019 | 14:00

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Interest in Bitcoin futures trading continues to gain momentum. As a result, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group is reaching record numbers for its Bitcoin futures contracts trading.

“This Is an Exciting Time for Bitcoin”

As CME data shows, interest in Bitcoin is not only confined to a small and well-defined sector of the investment community. On the contrary, the demand for trading the cryptocurrency is growing. In effect, in May 2019, CME saw its greatest volume in Bitcoin futures trading since the product was launched in 2017.

Tim McCourt, CME Group managing director and global head of equity products and alternative investments, told Forbes contributor Benjamin Pirus that year-to-date, Bitcoin futures averaged 7,237 contracts daily. This number of contracts traded represents a 132 percent increase from the same period last year.

Volume update: As of July 23, CME Bitcoin futures have traded over 2M total contracts (10M equivalent bitcoin) since the December 2017 launch. Explore BTC: https://t.co/Z1LGfdrbFL pic.twitter.com/NkmQnMnliM

— CMEGroup (@CMEGroup) July 23, 2019

Indeed, as Bitcoinist reported earlier, CME started posting a higher number of BTC futures contracts in May 2019. In that month, Bitcoin’s spot rate punched through the psychological resistance level of $6,000.

And as McCourt recently reported, CME saw the record single-day volume of 33,677 contracts on May 13, 2019. Moreover, as of July 23, 2019, CME had traded over $2 million contracts since its inception in December 2017.

36 Percent of U.S. Investors would consider Investing in BTC

CME data regarding BTC futures shows growing investor interest in Bitcoin. Grayscale Investments recently released a study that seems to confirm this trend.

According to the study, 36 percent of U.S. investors would be interested in Bitcoin-related investments. As a result, the Grayscale survey notes, there is a potential pool of over 21 million investors in the U.S. general population.

Likewise, CME highlights the fact that interest in crypto-related financial products is growing. According to McCourt,

“This is an exciting time for bitcoin futures, as well as for cryptocurrency assets in general.” And he added, “There is a lot of broad investor interest in cryptocurrency, as well as growing interest in a variety of applications for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.”

Due to this growing interest, other financial institutions are facilitating Bitcoin futures and developing new products.

For example, Bitcoin trading futures is already available at TD Ameritrade. Besides, TD Ameritrade recently announced that it is investing in ErisX. This company plans to offer investors and traders access to cryptocurrency spot contracts and futures contracts, on a single exchange.

Do you think CME’s record-breaking BTC futures trading volume will impact it’s value? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Bitcoinist Image Library, Twitter:@CMEGroup