CME Reports Strong Growth In BTC Futures Volume

US based Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has tweeted that Bitcoin futures (BTC) trading volume grew considerably in 3Q18. The tweet indicates that the average daily trading volume (ADV) of Bitcoin futures has increased by 41% on q-o-q basis in Q3, while open interest (OI) or the number of open contracts in Bitcoin futures has increased by 19% in Q3 2018.

Notably, the growth pace between Q3 and Q2 is slightly lower than the growth pace between Q2 and Q1. On July 20, the CME revealed that Bitcoin futures trading had seen a large increase in the second quarter, with ADV and OI up 93% and 58%, respectively, over Q1.

CME Group is a global leader by trading volume when it comes to futures and options trading. In December 17, 2017, the exchange launched Bitcoin futures trading. Notably, a week before Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) launched BTC futures.

In early October, Ran Neu-ner, host of CNBC’s show Cryptotrader and crypto analyst, had forecast that Bitcoin’s value is “about to explode” in the wake of the forthcoming decision on numerous Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) applications by the US Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC).

Neuner compared ETFs with Bitcoin futures, claiming that the anticipation of BTC futures contracts supposedly triggered the major cryptocurrency rally last year from “$6,691 (Nov. 11) to $20,000 (Dec .17).”

Of late, Bloomberg reported that the CME was not preparing to launch futures on any cryptocurrencies, other than Bitcoin, any time soon. Terry Duffy, CEO of CME, had supposedly publicized that the company should initially work on the strategy to Bitcoin futures, as it “might have been the most controversial launch of a product.”

Earlier this year, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco blamed the sharp decline in the crypto markets in 2018 as an outcome of Bitcoin futures launch.