Bitcoin futures market has lost steam with the Open Interest slipping to lower values, CME and Bakkt noted a huge drop

By Selena On Mar 7, 2020

Bitcoin retains green growth, although the global financial market has just had a sharp sell-off. The current situation is in contrast to what happened in the week before Bitcoin plummeted and was in the same direction as traditional assets. Bitcoin previously hovered around $ 8,800 on Thursday and then broke out to $ 9,100. Since then, BTC has remained stable above this critical price. At press time, Bitcoin was priced at $ 9,100, up 2% in a 24-hour range while successfully maintaining the key support of $ 9,000. However, the story is not so simple.

Bitcoin CME Futures continue to record low volumes as premium rate rises

While the spot market is on track to push Bitcoin prices higher, the bear market has yet to let that happen. The Futures market has lost steam too, with the Open Interest [OI] slipping to lower values.

Source: Skew

The aggregate Open Interest marked by the Skew chart indicates that OKEx still has an OI of $ 1 billion; However, CME and Bakkt have recorded a significant decline. Last week, CME’s Bitcoin volume reached its lowest level in 2020, with daily volume continuing the downtrend this week. On March 4, CME recorded a trading volume of just $ 89 million, a number that must be the lowest this year.

Source: Skew

Open Interest also dropped to nearly $ 200 million, while just two weeks ago, OI was almost $ 350 million.

Arcane’s recent research report says:

“It looks like institutional traders are taking a break from Bitcoin, in this unstable period with growing fear related to the coronavirus. While de-risking is a potential motivation, the sudden drop in the stock market likely had an effect through margin calls. leading to a short-term liquidity squeeze. ”

Despite falling volumes and OI declines, premium rates on CME and retail exchanges for March went in the opposite direction this week.

Source: Arcane Research

The annualized premium rates on CME have reached 20.5%, but the average premium on retail platforms has dropped to 13%. Moreover, the annualized premium rates for June across all platforms currently reflect an upward move, showing positive sentiment for the market over the medium term.

Bitfinex launches Tether Gold futures after capitalization of the $ 21 million

In other happenings, Bitfinex has launched Tether’s new gold-secured coin futures contract. Starting on March 6, Bitfinex users can trade Tether Gold futures (XAUT) futures with USDT.

Futures Trading on the #TetherGold/Tether pair (XAUTF0/USTF0) is now available!

Visit https://t.co/2ANzABco7C to learn more pic.twitter.com/QLRjAM7lLw

— Bitfinex (@bitfinex) March 6, 2020

The announcement released on Friday, Bitfinex confirmed future trading allowing traders to buy and sell assets at a specified price in the future, providing leverage up to 100x. Futures and other derivatives trading on Bitfinex are secured by iFinex Financial Technologies.

According to the release, the Tether Gold and Tether trading pairs will be made available to users in certain jurisdictions. As per Bitfinex’s regulations, account verification is not required for users who wish to trade and trade other trading pairs on Bitfinex.

A Bitfinex spokesperson said the list of jurisdictions allowed to trade Tether Gold/Tether is similar to the list applicable to the derivative terms of service on the website.

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