Share this article
BTC
$94,285.73
+
6.49%ETH
$1,796.20
+
10.20%USDT
$1.0001
+
0.02%XRP
$2.2675
+
7.80%BNB
$614.01
+
1.61%SOL
$151.81
+
8.87%USDC
$0.9998
+
0.00%DOGE
$0.1828
+
11.37%ADA
$0.7030
+
10.07%TRX
$0.2471
-
0.74%LINK
$14.82
+
10.90%AVAX
$22.89
+
13.01%SUI
$2.9271
+
26.91%LEO
$9.0742
-
0.02%XLM
$0.2699
+
9.63%SHIB
$0.0₄1374
+
9.60%HBAR
$0.1865
+
7.48%TON
$3.1053
+
5.66%BCH
$361.78
+
3.63%LTC
$84.52
+
5.77%Sign Up
- Back to menuPrices
- Back to menuResearch
- Back to menuConsensus
- Back to menu
- Back to menu
- Back to menu
- Back to menuWebinars & Events
CME Becomes Biggest Bitcoin Futures Exchange as Institutional Interest Rises
Chicago Mercantile Exchange now tops the list of the biggest bitcoin futures trading platforms, accounting for nearly 20% of all open interest.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has taken the prime spot on the list of the biggest bitcoin futures trading platforms, indicating a continued rise in institutional participation.
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
- With an open interest of $2.1 billion, the CME accounted for 19.09% of the global tally of $11 billion on Wednesday – the highest among major exchanges tracked by Skew, a crypto derivatives research firm.
- OKEx was the second-biggest exchange with an open interest of $1.97 billion, while Binance, the word's biggest crypto spot exchange by trading volume, ranked third with $1.82 billion.
- Open interest refers to the number of contracts traded but not squared off with an offsetting position.

- Looking back a year, the size of the futures market was quite small. Global open interest stood at $3 billion on Jan. 7, 2020, of which the CME contributed just 7% or $224 million.
- The CME has steadily climbed ranks over the past 12 months and more so over the past three months alongside bitcoin's meteoric price rally from $10,000 to record highs above $37,000.
- The exchange is considered synonymous with institutional trading, as it prefers to trade futures of any product via an established and regulated exchange like the CME.
Also read: Total Cryptocurrency Market Value Hits Record $1 Trillion
Omkar Godbole
Omkar Godbole is a Co-Managing Editor on CoinDesk's Markets team based in Mumbai, holds a masters degree in Finance and a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) member. Omkar previously worked at FXStreet, writing research on currency markets and as fundamental analyst at currency and commodities desk at Mumbai-based brokerage houses. Omkar holds small amounts of bitcoin, ether, BitTorrent, tron and dot.
