CME's Bitcoin futures facilitated over 11 million BTC in volume last year

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, or CME, has recorded significant volume for its Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading product over the course of the last 12 months. “More than 2.2+ million contracts were traded in 2020,” a CME representative told Cointelegraph. Each cash-settled Bitcoin futures contract at the CME is worth the dollar value of 5 Bitcoin.

The trading hub recorded higher than normal numbers as Bitcoin’s price heated up in December 2020 following a break of its 2017 all-time price high of $19,892 on Dec. 1. “BTC average daily volume (ADV) reached 11,179 contracts (55.9K equivalent bitcoin) in December, up 114% YoY [year over year],” the CME representative said.

Average daily open interest, or ADOI, “reached a record of 11,108 contracts (55,540 equivalent bitcoin) in Q4, up 233% vs. Q4 2019,” according to a statement from CME Group. Big players also showed up for trading, evident in the exchange’s large open interest holders, or LOIH, count. “The number of LOIH grew to a record of 110 in the first week of December, indicating strengthening institutional interest,” the CME representative said.

The CME is planning a February launch for its Ether (ETH) futures, which were initially announced in December 2020. 

A number of large financial entities expressed interest in Bitcoin in 2020, including MicroStrategy and Square, which allocated large sums of capital to crypto’s first asset.