Daily Crypto Derivatives Trading Volume Reaches Peak Levels
In this week’s cryptocurrency derivatives market, Deribit and Coinbase Institutional have reported unprecedented activity levels and trading volumes, reaching new highs across several exchanges. Deribit disclosed in a recent post that its 24-hour trading volume soared to an all-time high of $12.4 billion, marking a significant surge in open interest – the number of derivative contracts open and unsettled on the platform surpassed $29 billion, setting a historic record. Additionally, Deribit’s client assets hit $4 billion. Following suit, on March 1st, Coinbase Institutional announced that regulated U.S. futures exchanges experienced their second-best day with a real trading volume of $380 million in Bitcoin and Ether contracts among 850 unique end-users on February 29th.
Greeks Live, a professional options trading platform, also reported a high 24-hour trading volume of $620 million in selected options on March 1st. It highlighted that U.S. Bitcoin ETFs are driving a bullish spot market this week, witnessing record volumes as Bitcoin prices climbed to $64,000. However, the average positions in options volumes are on the rise, indicating a robust market structure fueled by solid inflows.
Fridays mark the expiration day for crypto options, with Deribit reporting the expiry of approximately 32,000 BTC options valued at an imaginary $1.9 billion on March 1st. Additionally, around 235,000 Ethereum option contracts, worth a real value of $793 million, are set to expire. Spot Bitcoin ETFs also had a successful week, with several days recording trading volumes exceeding $2 billion. However, a nearly $600 million outflow from Grayscale ETF on February 29th led to a net inflow reduction across all ten ETFs to $93.8 million, the lowest since February 6th, according to Farside Investors’ preliminary data.
The net inflow into the BlackRock Bitcoin fund reached $604 million on February 29th, surpassing the net outflow from Grayscale and becoming the day’s highest entrant across all other ETFs.
