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29 Mar 2021

Binance’s grip on the futures market strengthens

The bitcoin futures market's total open interest remains around $20 billion, and Binance is now the dominating player in the futures market.
binance grip.svg
Source: Skew
Starting the year, the fight for the throne in the futures market was fierce. OKEx, CME, and Binance all held the leading position from time to time. But, the first few months of the year have seen Binance strengthening its grip on the bitcoin futures market, as the platform currently holds 19% of the OI in the BTC futures market. Meanwhile, both CME and OKEx have seen a sharp decline in their relative dominance in the BTC Futures market. Accounting for 14% and 12% of the OI, respectively. On both platforms, the open interest have grown at a slower growth rate than bitcoin. The decline in CME could indicate that institutional investors are getting more cautious now. On the other side of the spectrum, we have Bybit. The platform has seen a huge influx in open interest over the last year and now holds 15% of the OI in the market, up from 4% one year prior. It’s worth keeping in mind that the average trader on Bybit and Binance have quite a hefty risk appetite, evident by the (since deleted) tweet from Binance in February, and the fact that these platforms tend to see the highest liquidations during sell-offs. It is, therefore, fair to assume that most of the OI on these platforms are fueled by high degrees of leverage. I contrast, CME has a far stricter maintenance margin.
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