The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is surging on open interest in the Bitcoin (BTC) futures and perpetual futures exchanges space, in a dynamic shift similar to the early stages of the 2020-2021 bull run.
CME Pushes to Overtake Binance in Bitcoin Futures Trading
Latest data from Coinglass reveals that CME has become the second largest Bitcoin futures exchange with nominal open interest (OI) of $3.54 billion.
This marks a significant climb from its previous position of fourth place. Notional open interest is a metric that indicates the value of US dollars tied up in active or open contracts.
While CME's rise has been impressive, the top spot is Binance, an offshore and unregulated exchange with $3.83 billion in open interest. With this figure, it is 8% ahead of CME.
CME's cash-settled futures contracts recently reached a historic milestone, surpassing the 100,000 BTC mark for the first time. At the same time, CME's share of the BTC futures market reached an all-time high of 25%.
It is worth noting that CME's standard Bitcoin futures contract represents 5 BTC, while the micro contract is one-tenth the size of 1 BTC.
In comparison, standard Ethereum futures have a contract size of 50 ETH, while micro futures are equal to one-tenth of 1 ETH. In particular, offshore exchanges show interest in perpetual futures rather than traditional futures contracts.
*This is not investment advice.