An important Chicago Mercantile Exchange Bitcoin (BTC) futures gap closed as BTC/USD suddenly dropped below $54,000 on Feb. 22. A CME gap forms when the price of Bitcoin moves either up or down after the CME closes during the weekend or holidays in the United States. Unlike most cryptocurrency exchanges, because the CME Bitcoin futures exchange is not open at all times, a gap forms between CME and many Bitcoin trading platforms. Why is the CME Bitcoin gap significant? The CME gap is sometimes considered an important gap to fill for the Bitcoin rally to continue in the near term. …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) abysmal December 2017 futures launch quickly fell short of investors expectations and even though the CME BTC market has surpassed $2.5 billion in open interest, the initial launch has reinforced the narrative that this week’s CME ETH futures launch will be equally bearish in the short term. Prior to the CME BTC futures launch, Bitcoin had already gained 1,900% for the year, a rally which some analysts argue was propelled by the expectation of regulated futures. Now that the CME ETH futures have launched, investors are watching closely to see if Ether (ETH) will face a similar situation …

The launch of Chicago Mercantile Group’s highly anticipated Ether futures saw more than $30 million worth of contracts traded during the first day of trade. Launched on Feb. 8, CME’s new Ether product saw 388 contracts traded in its first day, with 303 of the contracts being mobilized to speculate on February’s price. While 84 contracts expiring in March were also traded, only a single April contract changed hands. Each of CME’s contracts represents 50 Ether, with the exchange setting the minimum trade value at five contracts — worth more than $450,000 at current prices. CME’s ETH futures last traded …

The price of Ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum, achieved a new all-time high on Feb. 9, 2021. On Binance, ETH rallied to as high as $1,830 merely hours after it started to trade on CME. Why is ETH rallying after the CME listing of any importance? The timing of the ETH rally to a new record-high is noteworthy because of the negative sentiment around it prior to the listing. In December 2017, CME listed the Bitcoin futures contract for the first time. Within weeks, the price of Bitcoin crashed from $20,000 to around $6,000. Many traders and analysts …

Crypto asset manager CoinShares has reported that investment inflows into institutional cryptocurrency funds surged last week, and the majority of it was Ethereum. The report states that of the $245 million crypto inflow last week, 80% of it or $195 million was invested into Ether products ahead of the launch of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Ethereum futures contracts on Feb. 8. Comparatively, Bitcoin had $41.9 million of the weekly flows, with a year-to-date total of $2.02 billion. The report suggested that investor diversification was starting to occur, adding that there was little evidence of taking profits with investors preferring to …

Today Bitcoin (BTC) price rallied to a new all-time high at $44,900 shortly after Tesla announced a $1.5 billion investment. This event triggered $555 million worth of shorts to be liquidated in two hours and it happened as Bitcoin futures open interest reached $13.7 billion, which is just 3% below its historical high. These price moves drastically increased the cost of carrying long positions, mainly for those using perpetual futures. This indicator raised a yellow flag on how leveraged those investors are and their potential price impact. As shown adove, the aggregate BTC futures open interest just reached a $15 …

Bitcoin (BTC) bulls seem firmly in the driving seat this week as the largest cryptocurrency begins Monday at near $40,000. After climbing through much of the previous week’s trading, BTC/USD is now up 15% compared to seven days ago — what’s next? Cointelegraph takes a look at five factors which may influence where Bitcoin heads in the coming few days. Stocks hit records but dollar declines Bitcoin’s ascent prior to the weekend was accompanied by a familiar scenario on macro markets. Despite the coronavirus and its fallout continuing to wreak havoc on many economies worldwide, stock markets hit new all-time …

After bouncing from the recent short-term low, Bitcoin (BTC) price posted a 15% gain over three days as it climbed from $32,400 to $37,200. This was an impressive move given that BTC price had been trading in a sideways range for weeks and regardless of the reasons behind the surge, one would expect large traders and arbitrage desks to follow the trend. Interestingly, this is not the case as many of the top traders opened short positions as BTC commenced its 15% move. Even if a trader lacks confidence in a potential retest of the $42,000 all-time high, opening shorts …

CME Group’s chief economist and managing director, Bluford Putnam, recently acknowledged that Bitcoin is competing with gold as a hedge against inflation. “Gold appears to have an emerging competitor in Bitcoin,” told Bloomberg for a video released on YouTube on Tuesday. “Given the current price range for gold, it is likely that increased production will be a feature of 2021,” he said. Gold’s supply is less clearly defined than Bitcoin’s. Built into the asset’s code, BTC touts a set maximum limit of 21 million coins, dispersed into circulation on a steady mining schedule. Putnam mentioned this characteristic of Bitcoin in …

When Bitcoin's (BTC) price dropped 10% to $29,150 on Jan. 27, something unusual happened with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) BTC futures contracts. As the price fell, these CME Bitcoin futures traded at a 1% discount to Coinbase, which signaled a disarrangement between both markets. Good morning. Bitcoin spot has almost full retraced the weekly. CME bitcoin futs are both backwardian and expire Friday. That is all. — i.am.nomad (@IamNomad) January 27, 2021 Immediately, traders suggested that futures contracts, which were set to expire in 48-hours, were responsible for the price dump. Now, before rushing to quick conclusions, one should …

After a surprise rally fueled by an update to Elon Musk’s Twitter biography, demand for Bitcoin (BTC) appears to be particularly strong in professional trading circles. According to TradingView data, the ticker BTC1!, which represents CME’s Bitcoin futures contracts with the closest expiry — currently for February — is trading at over a 1% premium over spot BTC markets. This positive deviation in prices between a future and the underlying — which traders call "contango" — indicates that few institutions are willing to be short on the asset. Since this difference can be arbitraged, a consistent contango condition means that …

In the last 24-hours Bitcoin (BTC) price dropped 10% today to test the $30,000 support. This drop below what traders have described as a ‘key’ support occurred just two days ahead of this month’s futures and options expiry. Despite the record-high $4 billion options expiry being just two days away, both bull and bear sides traded similar sizes today. Unlike futures contracts, options are divided into two segments. Call (buy) options allow the buyer to acquire BTC at a fixed price on the expiry date. On the other hand, the seller of the instrument will be obliged to make the …