CME Bitcoin Futures Open Interest Climbs Past Binance, Indicating Growing Institutional Demand

The open interest for bitcoin futures on the CME Group has outstripped that of Binance’s futures market, with the former reaching an open interest of $4.06 billion and the latter at $3.87 billion, as bitcoin’s value climbs to new peaks.

CME Leads Bitcoin Futures Rally as Open Interest Swells to $4.06 Billion

The financial sector is closely monitoring the progress of several spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) awaiting regulatory approval. These days, investors are increasingly convinced of the crypto asset’s allure to institutional investors. Mike Novogratz of Galaxy Digital underscored this sentiment in the company’s Q3 earnings call, predicting that “2024 literally is going to be a year of institutional adoption.”

On November 9, 2023, BTC reached an 18-month high, with the price of bitcoin soaring to $37,978. The subsequent day, bitcoin’s value has settled slightly above the $37K mark. This fluctuation aligns with heightened institutional attention, evidenced by the CME Group’s bitcoin futures open interest exceeding that of Binance on Friday. Comparatively, 11 months prior, CME ranked third for bitcoin futures open interest, with Binance leading the market.

The current landscape has shifted, with CME at $4.06 billion in open interest, surpassing Binance’s $3.87 billion, according to coinglass.com metrics. The open interest (OI) at CME totals 108,900 BTC, and Binance’s OI is close behind at 103,690 BTC. On November 10, Bybit followed Binance with an OI of $2.75 billion, trailed by Okx at $1.83 billion, with Bitget at $1.20 billion, completing the top five ranks in OI.

Overall, the combined crypto futures OI across all trading platforms hit $34.25 billion on Friday, marking a 3.87% increase from the previous day. In light of CME Group surpassing Binance in OI, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart commented on the development on the social media platform X (formally Twitter).

“Okay this is interesting,” Seyffart posted. “Does this constitute ‘market of significant size’ now? Haha.”

CME Group introduced bitcoin futures on December 18, 2017, during the notable bull run when BTC approached the $20,000 mark for the first time. Prior to CME’s offering, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) was the first institutional platform to launch BTC futures. Nevertheless, Cboe ceased issuing new contracts for its cash-settled XBT bitcoin futures in 2019.

What do you think about CME Group surpassing Binance in terms of bitcoin futures open interest on Friday? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.