Growing institutional presence
The strong start to the year has been backed by growing institutional participation in BTC futures. CME’s share of the total open interest in BTC futures currently sits at 21%, near all-time highs.
Jan 25th 2023
Source: Skew, Laevitas, CME Group
CME’s market dominance has only been higher on two previous occasions, during the launch of the futures-based ETFs in October 2021 and in late December 2021.
The 10-month long trend of declining institutional speculative participation seemingly ended during the FTX collapse in November. In November, CME experienced a short-lived massive surge in activity in a massive push related to hedges.