New Data Shows Loss of CME’s Dominance Over Bitcoin Options Market

The total open interest (OI) across Bitcoin’s options market incurred an upsurge recently and the market is now a renowned part of the leading cryptocurrency’s domain. Towards the end of June, Bitcoin recorded its all-time largest options expiry, with the expiry of monthly and quarterly contracts valued at about $1 billion on a single day.

This biggest expiry ever recorded in a day within the cryptocurrency industry signals huge growth in the options market over the previous year. When the contracts expired, this represented more than 60 percent of the total outstanding OI.

This has led to a decline in the OI for options contracts, and currently, data suggests that the CME was hit hardest by this decline. The OI for contracts declined from $1.8 billion to lows of $894 million while there was a 67 percent fall (from $439 million to $145 million) in interest on the CME platform.

Likewise, it seems institutional investors are becoming less interested in Bitcoin’s trading contracts, as the platform’s share over the options market is dwindling. Arcane Research reported this new data recently, noting that:

“The total bitcoin open interest halved (falling from $1.8 billion to $894 million) following the large contract expiry of June 26th. CME was hit the hardest as its open interest dropped 67% from $439 million to $145 million on the day of the contract expiry.”

The research firm also noted a decline in CME’s dominance over the options market suggesting that institutional traders are less motivated to place new Bitcoin positions. However, during the same time, the dominance of Deribit in the options market increased by 8 percent.

“The loss in open interest caused CME’s relative shares of the total open interest to plummet from 25% of the market to below 15%.”

What does this mean for Bitcoin’s performance? The cryptocurrency’s options market appears to be signaling the extension of BTC’s bout of consolidation in the weeks ahead.

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