BTC Futures Open Interest Soars Leading up to Bitcoin ETF’s Official Launch

Prior to the launch of the Proshares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), open interest in bitcoin futures products has been surging since the start of the month, according to data from the Coinbase Institutional arm Skew Analytics. Binance and FTX command the lion’s share of bitcoin futures’ open interest with 40.67% of the market. Moreover, data from bybt.com’s bitcoin futures’ open interest metrics, shows the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) commands 15.54% of all the open interest in bitcoin futures tallied this week.

On Tuesday, October 19, 2021, the first exchange-traded fund based on bitcoin futures was launched in the United States. So far, Proshares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) is trading above the ETF’s initial value when the opening bell kick-started trading.



Since the first bitcoin ETF is based on BTC derivatives markets, prior to the launch a large influx of bitcoin futures open interest was recorded by a number of analytical web portals.

On October 12, Coinbase Institutional’s Skew Analytics tweeted about the massive open interest stemming from bitcoin futures markets. “Bitcoin futures open interest have been surging since the start of the month,” the official Coinbase Institutional Skew Twitter account said.



Additionally, the account noted that BTC options markets were quite different. “Bitcoin options market seems cautiously positioned ahead of ETF catalysts with skew rallying back to positive territory,” Skew remarked the following day.

Data from bybt.com indicates that Binance rules the roost as far as bitcoin futures open interest dominance is concerned. Statistics indicate that Binance commands 23.5% of all the bitcoin open interest among all the BTC derivatives markets trading today.



Binance has around $5.54 billion recorded, while FTX Exchange captures around $4.05 billion or 17.17%. Open interest (OI) metrics from CME Group have increased as CME now holds the third-largest position in terms of OI. CME has seen a 1.35% increase in OI and metrics show CME commands 15.54% of all the bitcoin futures’ open interest.

CME is followed by bitcoin futures markets such as Bybit, Okex, Deribit, Huobi, and Bitmex. Collectively all five of the mentioned crypto derivatives exchanges command 35.56% of all the bitcoin OI tallied.

What do you think about bitcoin futures’ open interest surging before the bitcoin ETF listed today? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.