Bitcoin (BTC) futures platform Bakkt now sees most of its contracts settled in BTC, not cash, the latest data reveals. According to analytics resource Skew, the latest date for which data is available in May produced $34 million for Bakkt’s physically-settled Bitcoin futures. Tide turns against cash settlement Cash-settled Bitcoin futures recorded $9.3 million in volume, while total open interest was $7.6 million. The trend reverses the previous status quo, under which futures settled in fiat saw larger volumes. This was the case throughout March and April, as volatility underscored investors’ desire for cash. May meanwhile also saw a daily …

Derivatives giant BitMEX and cryptocurrency exchange Binance are the Bitcoin (BTC) industry’s biggest — when ranked by open interest (OI). According to updated rankings from exchange Bybit, as of May 19, the two household names now top the list when it comes to the total OI on their derivatives contracts. BitMEX open interest almost double Binance Third place is Bybit itself, followed by Huobi and FTX. OI for BitMEX was in excess of $587 million at press time, with Binance somewhat lower at $314 million. The OI took a significant hit on BitMEX, in particular, in March — falling from …

Bitcoin (BTC) is starting the second week of its fourth halving cycle clinging to $9,500, but what factors are weighing on the largest cryptocurrency this week? Fundamentals adapt to halving The start of a new week has seen Bitcoin fall back from closer to $10,000 to around $9,500, historically a focal price point. Post-halving, the Bitcoin network hash rate has continued to dip as mining rewards halve. Accordingly, network difficulty is now also due for a decrease, this time by around 3% on Tuesday. Bitcoin seven-day average hash rate, one-month chart. Source: Blockchain The mining difficulty adjustment feature is key …

Mainstream market exchange, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, or CME, recently posted record numbers for its Bitcoin (BTC) trading products. May 14 yielded open interest of 10,792 Bitcoin futures trading contracts at CME, totalling 53,960 BTC — an all-time high for the product, according to information a CME representative provided to Cointelegraph. On May 4, CME also tallied 66 large open interest holders, or LOIHs — another record. These LOIH figures in particular indicate added involvement from institutions, the CME representative noted. CME Bitcoin options have performed well since launch CME largely opened the door for mainstream Bitcoin participation in December …

Bitcoin (BTC) holders now have a new tool to leverage the largest cryptocurrency’s growing ecosystem as two new futures markets go live. In a blog post on May 15, derivatives platform FTX confirmed it had launched a futures product which tracks not Bitcoin’s price, but hash rate. FTX takes on first Bitcoin hash rate futures Simply dubbed “hashrate futures,” the contracts track the average difficulty of the Bitcoin network each day from the start to the end of each quarter. The difficulty is used, not hash rate, because as FTX notes, measuring hash rate accurately is impossible. “However, given that …

Bitcoin (BTC) price briefly returned to $10,000 on May 14 as a fresh spectacular bullish surge entirely canceled out its weekend crash. Cryptocurrency market daily overview. Source: Coin360 Another BTC price crash disappears Data from Cointelegraph Markets and CoinMarketCap tracked BTC/USD as it rose to retake five figures on Thursday, gaining 13% in the past 24 hours. Resistance levels in the $9,000 corridor quickly fell as momentum built to send Bitcoin back to its position from last week. After reaching just below $10,000, a retracement took markets to press-time levels of $9,700 within minutes. Bitcoin 1-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap As …

Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, inflation is collapsing all over the world. In order to hedge against the inflation risks, some billionaire investors are buying Bitcoin (BTC). Paul Tudor Jones, the billionaire founder of hedge fund, Tudor Investment Corporation, reportedly revealed that Bitcoin is part of his portfolio. “If I am forced to forecast, my bet is it will be Bitcoin.” According to a May 7 report by Bloomberg, Jones is buying Bitcoin to protect his investments from the inflation coming from the money-printing by central banks. In a market outlook note titled “The Great Monetary Inflation,” the billionaire investor …

Bitcoin (BTC) institutional investors are banking on a bull run as the latest data shows new records for the top cryptocurrency’s futures markets. As noted by institution-focused crypto analysis company Arcane Research on May 7, open interest for CME Group’s Bitcoin futures has hit a fresh all-time high. CME: open interest at all-time high but volume fades According to the figures, collected from monitoring resource Skew, CME open interest has hit $399 million, beating the previous record of $392 million from June 2019. The growth rate in open interest has been particularly impressive since March when it totaled less than …

A study by TokenInsight indicates that the total futures trading volume in the crypto industry reached over $2.1 trillion in Q1 2020. This is an increase of 314% from the 2019 Q4 average. According to the “2020 Q1 Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange Industry Report”, except for a slight decline in Q4 2019, the trading volume of cryptocurrency futures grew in 2019. The total market turnover in Q1 2020 is roughly eight times than Q1 2019. For trading volume analysis, TokenInsight included BitMEX, OKEx, Huobi DM, Binance Futures, Deribit, Bitget, Binance JEX, FTX, Gate.io, BFX.NU, BitZ, and KuMEX, in addition to some …

Mike Blandina, former PayPal and Google veteran, is stepping down from his role as the CEO of digital assets company, Bakkt, after only 4 months on the job. Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE, the parent company of Bakkt, has indicated that its Vice President of mergers and acquisitions, Daivd Clifton, will succeed Blandina as the company’s CEO. Adam White, the company’s president, will maintain his role, according to an announcement on April 23. The new press release did not elaborate on Blandina’s future plans. It only noted that he is “leaving the company to pursue a new opportunity.” The new CEO’s …

BitMEX, one of the world’s biggest crypto derivatives exchanges, is still struggling to recover from a major market sell-off that followed the Black Thursday crash in March. According to an April 21 report by crypto analytics firm Coin Metrics, BitMEX has continued losing in both open interest and volume for Bitcoin (BTC) futures since last month’s historic market crash. At the same time, Binance’s Bitcoin futures trading arm, Binance Futures, has been increasingly gaining momentum, the report said. This data comes from Coin Metrics’ 47th “State of the Network” report, devoted to understanding the impact of the Black Thursday on …

A secretive yet reportedly highly lucrative hedge fund now has the green light to invest in Bitcoin (BTC) futures markets. In a brochure originally dated March 30, the United States regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed that Renaissance Technologies’ Medallion Funds now have access to the burgeoning Bitcoin futures scene. Medallion Funds gets BTC futures go-ahead According to the literature, Renaissance will offer access to cash-settled contracts from CME Group, one of the two oldest-running Bitcoin futures providers. “The Medallion Funds are permitted to enter into bitcoin futures transactions, which Renaissance will limit to cash-settled futures contracts traded …