As Bitcoin prices remain volatile, the demand for options products on CME is skyrocketing. The total open interest for CME Bitcoin options contracts jumped to $373 million on June 10, compared to only $35 million on May 11 - ten-fold increase in merely 30 days.
The impressive figure of total open interest also hit record highs for six consecutive days since June 5.
This put CME Bitcoin options second in demand only after the offerings of Deribit, which remain the market leader in this arena. CME now represents 20 percent of the total Bitcoin options market, however, the increased market share of CME came from the cost of Deribit’s demand.
#bitcoin options open interest past $1.5bln on our radar, only one month after crossing $1bln pic.twitter.com/Pgxi8R3vbz
— skew (@skewdotcom) June 10, 2020
Other than the top two, market shares of other Bitcoin options providers including LedgerX, Bakkt, and OKEx remain unchanged.
Increasing institutional activity in the crypto market
Compared to the options demand, CME Bitcoin futures are witnessing a roller coaster ride. The open interest for Bitcoin futures, however, saw three straight record days last month as it almost touched $500 million.
Earlier this month, the daily volume of CME Bitcoin futures soared to $795 million.
CME introduced Bitcoin futures in December 2017 which pushed the digital asset price to hit a record high. Since then, the company also remained the market leader for USD-settled Bitcoin futures, a much-sought investment instrument for institutions.
The Chicago-headquartered Exchange started offering Bitcoin options earlier this year and since then its demand remains on the higher side. However, demand for much-hyped Bakkt’s physically-settled Bitcoin options, which the firm launched a month before CME, remains dull.
Despite the massive demand for CME’s Bitcoin derivatives products, the exchange clarified that it does not have any plans to expand its product line in the near future.
