Bitcoin Futures Open Interest Surges Nearly 10% as BTC Eyes $110K

Open interest in bitcoin perpetual futures surged Wednesday by the most in four months as the leading cryptocurrency neared the $110,000 mark.

Open interest in perpetual futures listed on offshore exchanges rose by nearly 10% to $26.91 billion, the highest single-day increase since March 2, according to data source Velo. The data tracking website included activity in USD and USDT-denominated perpetuals listed on Binance, Bybit, OKX, Deribit, and Hyperliquid.

Open interest refers to the number of active or open contracts, often expressed in terms of their cumulative dollar-denominated value.

An uptick in open interest alongside a price rise is said to confirm the uptrend. BTC's price surged over 3.5% to $109,600 due to a host of factors, including the disappointing U.S. ADP jobs report, which strengthened calls for Fed rate cuts, Trump's trade deal with Vietnam, and the launch of the REX-Osprey Solana + Staking ETF (SSK).

Furthermore, the perpetual funding rates of BTC and ETH rose slightly from an annualized 5% to over 7%, suggesting renewed demand for leveraged bullish plays. Funding rates for DOGE and ADA topped the 10% mark.

BTC's price rally also led to a total of $300 million in liquidations or forced closure of leveraged futures plays due to margin shortages. Most of the forced closures were bearish short positions, according to the data source Coinglass.

A total of 107,604 traders have been liquidated in the past 24 hours, with the largest single order, worth over $2.32 million, happening on Hyperliquid.

Bitcoin CME Futures Premium Slides, Suggests Waning Institutional Appetite

The premium in bitcoin (BTC) futures listed on the global derivatives giant Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has narrowed sharply, a sign of reduced institutional appetite.

The annualized premium in rolling three-month futures has dropped to 4.3%, the lowest since October 2023, according to data tracked by 10x Research. That's down significantly from highs above 10% seen early this year.

The decline in the so-called basis, despite BTC's price holding steady above $100,000, indicates fading optimism or uncertainty about future price prospects.

The drop is consistent with the slide in the funding rates in perpetual futures listed on major offshore exchanges. According to 10x, funding rates recently flipped negative, suggesting a discount in perpetual futures relative to the spot price, which is also a sign of bias for bearish short positions.

The dwindling price differential is a setback for those seeking to pursue the non-directional cash-and-carry arbitrage, which involves simultaneously purchasing spot ETFs (or actually BTC) and shorting the CME futures.

“When yield spreads fall below a 10% hurdle rate, Bitcoin ETF inflows are typically driven by directional investors rather than arbitrage-focused hedge funds. This dynamic often coincides with price consolidation. Currently, these spreads are down to 1.0% (perpetual futures funding rate) and 4.3% (CME basis rate), indicating a significant decline in hedge fund arbitrage activity,” Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, told CoinDesk.

BTC 3M CME futures basis (premium) and perpetual funding rates. (10x Research)

Thielen added that the drop-off coincides with muted retail participation, as indicated by depressed perpetual funding rates and low spot market volumes.

Padalan Capital voiced a similar opinion in a weekly update, calling the decline in funding rates a sign of retrenchment in speculative interest.

“A more acute signal of risk-off positioning comes from regulated venues, where the CME-to-spot basis for both Bitcoin and Ethereum has inverted into deeply negative territory, indicating aggressive institutional hedging or a substantial unwind of cash-and-carry structures.,” Padalan Capital noted.

Read more: XRP Army Is Truly Global As CME Data Reveals Nearly Half of XRP Futures Trading Occurs in Non-U.S. Hours

Coinbase Derivatives, Nodal Clear Plan to Use USDC as Collateral for Futures Trades

Coinbase Derivatives and Nodal Clear are working to integrate the USDC stablecoin as collateral in regulated U.S. futures markets, aiming to launch the new framework in 2026.

If approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the plan is expected to mark the first time a stablecoin is formally accepted as collateral for margined futures in the U.S.

Coinbase Custody Trust would hold the USDC. Nodal Clear, a CFTC-regulated and part of the Deutsche Börse-owned EEX Group, would handle clearing.

The two firms said they are collaborating with U.S. regulators to bring the offering to market.

“Our commitment to integrate USDC as collateral reflects our dedication to enhance trading capabilities for US market participants, improve operational efficiency through almost instant money movement,” Boris Ilyevsky, CEO of Coinbase Derivatives, said in a statement.

Coinbase touted the move as a “meaningful milestone” in its push to turn USDC into a “true cash equivalent.” The stablecoin, the second-largest behind Tether’s USDT, is also set to be integrated into Shopify over Base.

The announcement follows Coinbase Derivatives’ partnership with Nodal Clear to launch round-the-clock futures trading of BTC and ETH in the United States.

How James Wynn’s $100M Implosion Is Familiar Leverage Tale

Derivatives trader James Wynn emerged out of the woodworks a few weeks ago, flaunting 9-figure bitcoin positions on HyperLiquid as he went on a seemingly undefeatable run that culminated in around $100 million worth of profit.

But that run, as is often the case with highly-leveraged crypto derivative trading, came to a shocking end — Wynn liquidated his entire account despite BTC only moving by a couple of percent.

“I've decided to give perp trading a break,” Wynn wrote on X after the final blow up. “Its been a fun ride. Approximately $4 million into $100 million and then back down to a total account loss of $17.5 million.”

Wynn's story is nothing new. In 2021, for instance, the industry saw the public rise of Alex Wice — a poker player turned derivatives trader — that also lost $100 million after making huge bets with leverage. And even in 2017, in the BitMEX trollbox days, pseudonymous figures like SteveS and TheBoot used to boast about their 10s of millions in profit and loss before forever fading into obscurity.

The problem with crypto derivatives

Cryptocurrency derivatives can be an incredibly useful tool; if a trader holds 500 BTC ($52 million) and believes the market will go down, they can hedge their position by going short — reducing exposure without having to sell their spot assets, which in itself could cause slippage or front running.

An array of delta neutral strategies can also be employed like the classic basis trade that became popular amongst institutional traders on the bitcoin CME futures market, which involve simultaneously going long and short to harvest the funding rate as a yield.

But issues begin to form when crypto traders, the majority of whom are inexperienced retail traders, use platforms that offer up to 100x leverage.

Imagine a newcomer had $5,000 in trading capital, sure, they could make a few intraday trades and make $50 or $100 per trade, but if they used 100x they could make $50,000 per 10% move. This is the slippery slope of gambling-induced emotional trading that many fall into.

Data from NewTrading shows that just 3% of day traders make a profit and 1% do so consistently. And the game becomes even tougher when, in this case, traders are opening positions worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

James Wynn exists the casino

James Wynn's downfall came in part due to his inability to deal with the emotional swings of trading, but also the sheer size of his positions.

Wynn would often post about getting partially liquidated and re-opening the position at a worse break-even point. This is indicative of a trader out of his depth through over-leverage. As Wynn used in some cases 40x leverage, his liquidation point left no margin for error, this meant that astute traders or trading firms could hunt his liquidation point and force him into an impulsive trade.

HyperLiquid is a relatively liquid derivatives venue, it has millions in market depth within 1% of an asset's price but it does not have hundreds of million, which was required to absorb Wynn's leveraged positions.

In reality, Wynn's trade thesis was based around the Bitcoin Las Vegas event and any potential announcements that could lift bitcoin above a new record high. If this came into fruition, Wynn would have had hundreds of millions in unrealized profit, but unfortunately in his case, bitcoin began to slump during the conference as speeches from Michael Saylor and Ross Ulbricht failed to spark any upside momentum.

The lack of volatility and Wynn's insatiable appetite to keep betting led to him getting chopped out of the market. His losses became so notable that one trader decided to counter trade every position by going short at the same time as Wynn went long, this trader made $17 million, according to Lookonchain.

As the sun finally set on Wynn's derivatives journey he announced he was “going back to the trenches” to trade meme coins, of course.

Binance Futures List HYPE Token Amid Feverish Trading Activity in Hyperliquid

Binance Futures listed HYPE, the native token of rival derivatives exchange HyperLiquid, on Friday.

HYPE rose by 77.5% over the past 30 days as it made its way into the 15 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.

The Binance listing is a USD-margined perpetual contact that offers up to 75x leverage.

Prominent trader and HyperLiquid supporter Flood said on X that the first exchange that lists HYPE spot markets will make “$100 million in fees” in the first year.

HYPE was unmoved by the announcement; it is down by 4.3% over the past 24 hours in line with a wider crypto market slump.

HyperLiquid notched $11 billion in perpetual trading volume during the same period as it rapidly emerges as this cycle's decentralized derivatives exchange of choice.

Binance futures, meanwhile, remains the largest centralized exchange with $91 billion in trading volume over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.

XRP Army Is Truly Global As CME Data Reveals Nearly Half of XRP Futures Trading Occurs in Non-U.S. Hours

The CME's recently launched XRP XRP futures underscore the cryptocurrency's international appeal, with nearly half of its trading volume occurring outside U.S. trading hours.

The regulated XRP futures – standard and micro-sized contracts – began trading on the global derivatives giant a week ago, registering a total trading volume of 4,032, worth $86.6 million in the first six trading days, the exchange's spokesperson told CoinDesk.

The spokesperson highlighted that “46% of the [total] volume occurred during non-U.S. hours” and nearly half of the trading comes from participants outside the U.S.

The data suggest strong international participation in the futures market. XRP is a payments-focused cryptocurrency primarily designed for fast and low-cost cross-border payments. 

Ripple, a financial technology company, uses XRP and the XRP Ledger (XRPL) to facilitate international money transfers.

The CME's standard and micro contracts, sized at 50,000 XRP and 2,500 XRP, respectively, are cash-settled and based on the SME CF CRP-Dollar Reference rate, which tracks the cryptocurrency's price daily at 4:00 p.m. London time.

These futures enable traders to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency without actually owning it.

Surge in XRP, Dogecoin Futures Bets Signals Speculative Froth

Speculative bets are piling into XRP and dogecoin (DOGE) futures even as spot prices show signs of losing momentum, signaling rising appetite for volatility and downside risk.

In the past week, DOGE futures open interest surged from $989 million to $1.62 billion, a 63.9% jump, according to data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode. DOGE is up nearly 40% in the past week and trades just over 23 cents on Wednesday.

“This decoupling suggests persistent speculative positioning, even as price momentum fades — a setup worth monitoring,” Glassnode noted in an X post late Tuesday.

A similar trend is playing out in XRP, where open interest rose by over $1 billion, or a 41.6% increase over the same period. Unlike DOGE, XRP has seen relatively lower spot gains, rising from around $2.14 to $2.6 in the past week.

Both cases indicate a broader uptick in derivatives-fueled speculation, particularly in high-beta assets. When open interest rises alongside (or in the absence of) price action, it often reflects traders positioning aggressively for upside.

However, this sets the stage for sharper liquidations if sentiment flips, leading to hundreds of millions wiped out in hours as a liquidation event earlier this week showed.

Open interest tracks the total value of outstanding futures contracts and is widely used as a proxy for speculative activity. When paired with flat or fading price action, rising OI can signal that leverage is outpacing conviction — a pattern that has preceded flash crashes in the past.

Earlier this year, DOGE futures set record highs as some traders speculated on a $1 DOGE in 2025. That narrative has cooled, but the current surge in futures bets indicates that memecoin and XRP exposure remains high-risk, high-reward territory.

CME Group Crypto Derivatives Volume Soars 129% in April With ETH Leading the Charge

CME Group’s cryptocurrency derivatives market posted a steep increase in trading activity in April, reaching a new average daily volume (ADV) of 183,000 contracts worth $8.9 billion in notional terms, the firm reported.

That marks a 129% jump compared to the same month last year, suggesting growing institutional interest in crypto markets.

Ether led the growth. CME’s ether futures ADV surged 239% to 14,000 contracts, while micro ether futures climbed 165% to 63,000. Micro bitcoin futures followed with a 115% increase to 78,000 contracts.

The CME’s bitcoin and ether futures contracts have a larger notional value, of 5 BTC and 50 ETH, respectively. Micro contracts, meanwhile, enable more precise trading, representing just 0.1 of each cryptocurrency.

The exchange operator had already reported record cryptocurrency derivatives volumes in the first quarter of the year. For the month of April, its overall ADV reached a record 35.9 million contracts, rising 36% year-over-year.

Ether, after significantly underperforming the wider cryptocurrency market, rose just 1.1% over the past 30 days, while the price of bitcoin rose 15.8%. The broader crypto market, measured through the coinDesk 20 (CD20) index, saw a 12.1% rise.

Bitcoin Futures Open Interest Surge Shows Investor Confidence on Trade Deals, Powell

As bitcoin (BTC) and ether's (ETH) recovery rally gathered momentum Tuesday, the perpetual futures market saw an even more pronounced increase in open interest, pointing to growing investor confidence as the Trump administration dialed back on its trade-tariff, anti-Fed rhetoric.

BTC, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, rose 6.79% nearly topping $94,000 for the first time since March, CoinDesk data show. That's the most significant single-day percentage gain since April 9. The Ethereum blockchain's ether token jumped 11% to $1,1175, it's best performance since April 2.

The rally came as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussed de-escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions, followed by President Donald Trump saying tariffs on Chinese goods will drop substantially from the present 245%. Trump further said he does not intend to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The price surge was characterized by traders deploying money for perpetual futures trading on major offshore exchanges as evidenced by bigger increases in open interest at Binance, Bybit, OKX and Deribit and leading on-chain perpetual-focused decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.

The cumulative notional open interest, or the dollar value of the number of active bets in BTC perpetual futures, rose by 10% to $17.83 billion, according to data source Velo. That's the biggest single-day increase since March 2, when Trump mentioned XRP, ADA and SOL as potential candidates for a strategic digital assets reserve that would hold bitcoin and ether as the core. The administration later said it would keep bitcoin seized in enforcement actions as a reserve.

“Bitcoin's Open Interest surged faster than its Price, with most positions originating from Binance,” Joao Wedson, CEO of Alphractal Research, said on X. “The issue is that a large portion consists of Longs, so increased volatility is expected in the coming hours.”

The price surge was likely aided by short squeeze, or unwinding of short perpetual futures bets. Funding rates were negative roughly 24 hours ago, implying a bias for shorts.

BTCUSDT perp futures price on Binance and daily changes in open interest on major perp exchanges. (Velo)

Ether's notional open interest jumped nearly 16% to $6.60 billion, the largest single-day increase since Nov. 27.

An increase in open interest alongside a price rise is said to confirm the bullish momentum. In other words, BTC and ETH could continue to rise.

ETHUSDT perp futures price on Binance and daily changes in open interest in major perp exchanges. (Velo)

Funding Rates Bullish

The bias for bullish long positions is also evident from the moderately positive annualized perpetual funding rates, ranging between annualized 5% to 10% for BTC and ETH.

Funding rates, charged every eight hours, are payments exchanged between traders holding long and short positions in perpetual futures. They are designed to ensure the contract price stays close to the underlying asset's spot price.

A positive funding rate implies that traders are more inclined and willing to pay fees to hold long positions. As such, it's considered a sign of bullish sentiment. However, excessively high funding rates can indicate overcrowding or bullish speculative fervor, but that's not the case right now.

Coinbase Institutional Is Close to Offering XRP Futures

U.S. crypto giant Coinbase Institutional said on Friday it had submitted a filing to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to roll out futures contracts tied to Ripple’s closely related XRP token.

“We’re excited to announce that Coinbase Derivatives has filed with the CFTC to self-certify $XRP futures – bringing a regulated, capital-efficient way to gain exposure to one of the most liquid digital assets,” it said in an X post. “We anticipate the contract going live on April 21, 2025.”

According to the filing, the XRP futures will operate as a monthly, cash-settled, margined contract, trading under the ticker XRL. Each contract mirrors XRP’s price, settled in USD, and represents 10,000 XRP — roughly $20,000 at the current $2 per token valuation.

Traders will have flexibility, with contracts available for the current month plus the following two, though a safeguard halts trading if XRP’s spot price swings over 10% within an hour.

When launched, the product will be the second after Chicago-based Bitnomial’s CFTC-regulated XRP futures that went live in March. XRP prices are down 2% in the past 24 hours, in line with a broader market drop.

Bitcoin Open Future Bets on Binance Increase by $600M, Suggest More Price Volatility

The bitcoin (BTC) price has jumped 2% to $87,800 since midnight UTC. The increase has been accompanied by an uptick in future open interest on Binance, validating the buoyant market mood to signal sustainable gains.

The open interest in the BTC-USDT futures listed on the exchange has increased by roughly 7,000 BTC ($614.6 million) since the early Asian trading hours, according to data tracked by Coinglass and Velo Data. Open interest refers to the number of active, or open, contracts at a given time.

Furthermore, funding rates on Binance have held positive to suggest a bias for leveraged bullish (long) bets.

“This is a good sign, volatility is coming,” Coinglass said, referring to the notable increase in open interest.

Kraken Close to Buying Futures Platform NinjaTrader for $1.5B: WSJ

Kraken is nearing a $1.5 billion deal for U.S. futures trading platform NinjaTrader, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The deal could be a way for the crypto exchange to move into another asset class and increase its users, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report added that Kraken could announce the deal as soon as Thursday and that NinjaTrader would remain a standalone platform under Kraken.

Kraken and NinjaTrader did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

Solana CME Futures Fell Short of BTC and ETH Debuts, but There’s a Catch

If you blinked you may have missed it: Solana’s SOL futures started trading on Monday on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the go-to marketplace for U.S. institutions, and unlike previous, historic CME debuts for bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), it received little fanfare.

The product booked $12.3 million in notional daily volume on day one and closed with $7.8 million in open interest, well falling short of similar debuts of BTC and ETH products, according to K33 Research data. For context, BTC futures launched in December 2017 with $102.7 million first-day volume and $20.9 million in open interest, while ETH futures debuted in February 2021 with $31 million in volume and $20 million in open interest, per K33.

Already under pressure by the implosion of speculative memecoin activity, bearish crypto action and even a botched commercial, SOL tumbled roughly 10% from its weekend high, underperforming bitcoin’s (BTC) and ether’s (ETH) 4.5% and 3.8% declines, respectively.

While SOL’s debut may seem lackluster in absolute terms, it is more in balance with BTC’s and ETH’s first-day figures when adjusted to market value, K33 analysts Vetle Lunde and David Zimmerman noted. Solana’s market capitalization stood at around $65 billion on Monday, a fraction of ETH’s $200 billion and BTC’s $318 billion at CME launch.

Solana’s CME launch also had unfavorable timing, as market conditions play a crucial role in futures activity, K33 added.

Bitcoin’s CME futures arrived at the peak of the 2017 bull market as speculative fervor was pushing to the extremes, and ETH’s debut coincided with the early stages of the 2021 altcoin rally and Tesla’s BTC purchase announcement, fueling institutional participation. In contrast, SOL futures started trading as crypto markets turned bearish, without any hype or major catalyst driving immediate demand for the product, according to the K33.”It would appear that institutional demand for altcoins may be shallow, although we note that SOL’s launch has come in a comparatively risk-off environment,” K33 analysts said.

Read more: Multicoin’s Samani Explains Why SOL ETF Could Trounce ETH’s

Derivatives trader Josh Lim, founder of Arbelos Markets that was recently acquired by prime broker FalconX, said that the CME product opens up new ways for institutions to manage their exposure to Solana, regardless of the first-day demand. FalconX executed the first SOL futures block trade on CME on Monday with financial services firm StoneX.

“There’s enthusiasm for this new CME product launch,” Lim said in a Telegram message. Liquid funds will be able to manage around their SOL holdings, including those that bought locked tokens in the FTX liquidation process, he said. Additionally, exchange-traded fund issuers with plans to introduce SOL products could start with CME futures-based ETFs.

“People are missing the big picture on the new CME products,” Lim said. “It’s going to change the access that hedge funds have into altcoins.”

Bitcoin CME Futures Spread Slides to $490, Undoing The ‘Trump Bump’ in BTC

The bullish sentiment seen after Donald Trump’s victory in the Nov. 5 Presidential elections has completely fizzled out, according to an indicator tied to the CME bitcoin (BTC) futures.

The indicator in consideration is the spread between “continuous” next month and front-month standard BTC futures trading on the global derivatives giant. A continuous contract is a calculated representation of a series of successively expiring futures contracts, allowing for a continuous historical data series for analysis.

The spread has narrowed to $495, the lowest since Nov. 5, having peaked at $1,705 on Dec. 17, according to data source TradingView. In other words, it has completely reversed the Trump bump in a sign of weakening bullish sentiment in the market.

“The narrowing spread between front-month and next-month CME Bitcoin futures could suggest traders are tempering their price expectations,” Thomas Erdösi, head of product at CF Benchmarks, told CoinDesk.

The unwinding of the Trump bump likely means the market has moved past the narrative that a pro-crypto President in the White House is good for the industry, and macro correlations are back in the driver’s seat.

“What we can see is that the front contract basis has repriced lower substantially since the beginning of March, signalling moderating near term expectations that the primary catalyst for the recent rally—the election of President Trump—has been fully priced in,” Erdosi said.

That’s already happening. Both BTC and Wall Street’s tech-heavy index, Nasdaq, have dropped 20% and 8%, respectively, since early February on a myriad of factors, including geopolitical uncertainty, Trump tariffs and the outlook for inflation and economic growth.

Additionally, the bitcoin market had to digest disappointment over the lack of fresh purchases in Trump’s strategic digital asset reserve plan. Last week, Trump signed an executive order, directing a creation of a strategic reserve that includes BTC seized in enforcement actions.

“The announcement about the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is not what the market was hoping for. Many expected the Reserve to buy new Bitcoin, but instead, they stated they would not sell any of their existing Bitcoin or confiscated Bitcoin. While this is a positive move, it caused a sharp decline in Bitcoin’s price,” Ian Balina, founder and CEO of Token Metrics, told CoinDesk in an email.

Futures are still in contango

While the spread between next month and front month CME futures contracts has narrowed, the entire curve remains in contango, where far-dated futures contracts (with longer maturities) trade at a premium to near-dated.

That’s how it usually is in all markets due to factors like storage, financing, insurance costs, and expectations of rising prices over coming weeks or months.

“The fact that perpetual funding rates remain positive and the futures basis is still in contango suggests the recent move is driven by unlevered spot longs being squeezed, rather than broader market contagion,” Erdösi noted.

Bitcoin Fills Yet Another CME Futures Gap as BTC Price Dropped to $76,700

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price on CME futures dropped to a low of around $76,700 on Monday, officially filling the CME futures gap that was created on Nov. 5, when President Trump won the U.S. election.

At the end of February, bitcoin (BTC) briefly fell to approximately $78,500, partially filling the gap, as the lowest point of the gap was $77,400. However, since CME futures only dropped to around $78,500 at that time, the gap remained partially open. With Monday’s decline to $76,700, the gap—ranging from $77,930 to $80,600—has now been fully closed.

For context, CME bitcoin futures trade 23 hours a day, from Sunday through Friday, whereas bitcoin spot markets trade 24/7. Gaps occur when there is a difference between the futures market closing price and the opening price for the next day due to the absence of trading activity during off-hours.

CoinDesk research noted that out of the previous 80 CME futures gaps, all but one have eventually been filled. As for remaining gaps, one still exists between $84,200 and $85,900.

Bitcoin Short-Term Futures Slip Into Discount on Deribit in Sign of Weak Demand

Deribit-listed bitcoin (BTC) futures set to expire this Friday now trade marginally below the exchange’s index price, flashing a discount in a sign of weak demand for the cryptocurrency.

“What we have seen is that near-tenor (7d and shorter) yields have dipped to the negative for the first time in over a year,” Andrew Melville, a research analyst at Block Scholes told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat. “This means that futures prices are trading below spot, which we take as a significantly bearish indicator.”

Deribit is the world’s leading crypto options exchange and a preferred venue for sophisticated traders looking to employ synthetic strategies involving futures, options and spot markets.

Bitcoin Trade Volume Wednesday Was One of the Largest Ever

Bitcoin continues to trade at record levels.

According to checkonchain data, Wednesday’s $130 billion bitcoin (BTC) volume was one of the highest in its history. Trade volume has soared since President Trump won the U.S. election at the start of November, doubling from a daily average of $65 billion.

The futures market (the total traded in futures contracts) yesterday saw $110 billion worth of volume. This was the fifth-highest futures trade volume recorded, only bettered on a handful of days in November and December last year.

The spot market saw roughly $15 billion of traded volume, which is approaching an all-time high. Meanwhile, bitcoin ETFs saw around $5 billion worth of trade volume, which is around half the all-time high seen in March 2024.

It is worth noting that options volume has not been included in the $130 billion daily volume figure, but it too is growing rapidly. According to Glassnode data, the total amount of options contracts traded in the last 24 hours is more than $3 billion.

With bitcoin is vying to be a global settlement layer, the more volume and liquidity that can be generated, the greater the asset’s chance of onboarding institutions that want to settle in billions of dollars at a moment’s notice.

CME Says XRP, SOL Futures Leak Was an Error, No Decisions Are Made

An earlier leak on the website of Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) showing regulated XRP (XRP) and Solana (SOL) futures could start trading on Feb. 10 pending regulatory approval was an “error,” a representative of the company told CoinDesk.

“A beta page from our website was released in error earlier today,” the spokesperson said. “Many mock-ups are included in that test environment. No decisions have been made regarding XRP or SOL futures contracts.”

A screenshot of a beta page for XRP (XRP) and Solana (SOL) futures contracts was posted on X earlier on Wednesday, sparking rumors that the exchange might get ready to list those investment vehicles on Feb. 10.

Both tokens jumped as much as 3% following the post, before paring some of their gains.