During the past 30 days, the total amount of outstanding
BTC derivative contracts of CME Group increased to $373 million. Coming from a total of $35 million this means an increase of 1000%, a signal that interest in
Bitcoin from institutional investors has been growing rapidly.
The regulated bitcoin product was only launched a few months ago by CME Group and has since then seen growing popularity. The product is now responsible for over 20% of the global bitcoin option market, even still, the company is not planning on launching additional cryptocurrency products.
The growing market share of CME Group needs to come from somewhere, and it seems that Deribit is the one handing in market share. However, Deribit is still the largest player within the options market, representing around 70%.
One reason for the rise in interest from institutional investors might be the turmoil on traditional markets. Stock markets took a big hit in March following the Corona crisis, and even though they recovered rapidly, now the thought seems to kick in that Corona and its impact on the economy are staying for a while. Bitcoin is thought to be less affected by economic developments.