BTC Futures Trading Volume is Declining, Report Shows

The “Crypto winter” has the hit the crypto futures market as the trade volume across the market plummeted drastically in the second half of 2018.

As revealed by a Tradeblock report, the total Bitcoin Bitcoin While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that Read this Term futures trading volume across Chicago Mercantile Exchange Exchange An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv Read this Term (CME) and Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) has declined and reached near parity with spot trading volume of five US-based crypto exchanges - Coinbase, Itbit, Kraken, Bitstamp, and Gemini.

Both CME and CBOE launched the Bitcoin futures instrument in December 2017 which boosted the value of Bitcoin to touch its peak. However, within a month, the spot market started to correct itself with a year-long bearish run and has lost 70 percent of its volume compared to mid-January 2018 numbers.

Tradeblock’s analysis shows that the futures market reached its peak in July and August 2018, however, the market took a downturn since then.

CME Captured the Market

Moreover, among the two competitors, CBOE has lost significant market share to its rival CME as the later continued to dominate the market within a couple of months after the launch of the instrument. Tradeblock, however, did not explain the reason behind CME's market dominance.

Fueled by the exit of the retail traders, the Bitcoin spot trading market took a downturn since January 2018. However, Bitcoin futures trading activity rose between December 2017 and August 2018. But the bullish run could not continue as in the next consecutive months BTC futures market saw a massive downturn.

Tradeblock pointed out that December 2018 registered the lowest monthly trading activity in BTC futures since the inception of the investment products.

“These findings highlight that futures trading activity has declined significantly since reaching a peak in the Summer of 2018. Spot trading activity, similarly, has declined considerably,” Tradeblock noted.

Despite the slowdown in the BTC futures market, major players like Bakkt, Nasdaq, ErisX, and CoinFLEX are planning to enter the market in 2019.

“It will be interesting to see how these trends change, as the market prepares to launch several new bitcoin futures platforms,” Tradeblock added.