• CME Group Inc. explained how their Bitcoin’s futures products rose by up to 41% in Q3
• Interesting rise of futures trading from Asia

Bitcoin’s futures products are on the rise. According to CME Group Inc.’s early morning tweet on Wednesday, October 17, their products are currently experiencing a rising volume.

Daily volume up 41% in Q3

CME is an American financial company known as the most diverse derivatives marketplace. They also have the widest selection of global benchmark products, which includes futures and options.

Before this Twitter announcement, CME has stated that Bitcoin futures volumes had been falling for three consecutive trading sessions. At that time, it has also been reported that there were less than 2,500 BTC transactions as compared to 8,000 during the month’s midpoint. It signified a drop of 70% in just 8 days.

According to reports, the average volume hit 5,053 contracts on a daily basis in the third quarter. This represents a 41 percent increase from 3,577 contracts that have been traded in the second quarter. The figure has also marked a 170% rise from the 1,854 contracts during the first quarter.

Moreover, CME gave information on open interest. This accounts for the overall number of unsettled contracts by participants who are trading in the market. This figure has also increased from about 1,500 contracts during the first quarter by up to almost 2,900 contracts upon reaching the third quarter. This  shows growth from the second quarter, which boasted 2,400 contracts during that period.

Asia responsible for a growing share of the trading

During the Consensus event in Singapore, Tim McCourt, Managing Director of CME, proposed that volumes had been spiking in September and that the company was seeing growing strong interest from Asian markets.

To quote the Managing Director, “Out of the 40 percent of bitcoin futures trading on CME that’s outside the United States, approximately 21 percent are coming from Asia.”

Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) has also posted similar numbers for each quarter. For example, during the first quarter the daily volume was only at roughly 2,100 contracts. However, open interest accounted for just over 1,100 contracts.

CME and CBOE were the first institutional-grade Bitcoin derivatives in the USA, launched in December last year. This was important to attract institutional money into the crypto market, which was primarily driven by the retail-investors, and other legacy financial institutions have since followed suit.