In a notable shift, the regulated Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has dethroned Binance as the foremost bitcoin (BTC) futures exchange, marking the first time in two years that CME has claimed the top position.
Data from CoinGlass reveals that CME now holds the top spot among futures and perpetual futures exchanges, boasting an open interest (OI) of approximately $4.07 billion. This figure reflects a 4% increase in the past 24 hours and signifies a substantial 24.7% market share. In contrast, Binance’s OI stands at $3.8 billion, reflecting a 7.8% decline during the same period. While CME offers trading in traditional futures contracts with predetermined expiry, Binance and other exchanges provide a mix of conventional futures and perpetual contracts or futures with no expiry.
The change in rankings coincided with a significant leverage flush out in the crypto market, characterized by volatile price swings. The aggregate bitcoin open interest experienced a $2 billion drop from $12 billion, impacting Binance traders more than CME market participants.
Bitcoin itself exhibited wild price fluctuations, surging to an 18-month high of nearly $38,000 before retracting sharply to around $36,000. This retracement followed the registration of a corporate entity named “iShares Ethereum Trust” in Delaware, reminiscent of a similar move before BlackRock, the owner of iShares, filed for a spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) in June.
CME’s ascent to the top position has been a gradual process throughout the year, underscoring the increasing demand from institutional market participants to trade the oldest and largest cryptocurrency. A 2020 paper by Bitwise Asset Management highlighted that the CME bitcoin futures market consistently leads the spot market in a statistically significant manner.
David Lawant, Head of Research at trading platform FalconX, noted that the intensification of CME’s market share gains in recent weeks aligns with the heightened excitement around BTC spot ETF applications. Lawant emphasized that the CME, primarily used by large traditional financial institutions, reflects the significant interest from this audience in the cryptocurrency space.
