- CME’s OI in Bitcoin Futures has more than doubled since the start of the year.
- A higher percentage of whale positions were long Bitcoin.
After bouncing around previous peaks over the weekend, Bitcoin [BTC] made a decisive move past $70,000 and recorded what could be the first of many new highs it would encounter in the coming months.
At the time of writing, the prized digital asset was trading at $72k with gains of almost 4% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.
The rally continued to build on the robust and fast-growing institutional interest in cryptos.
Open interest on CME breaks $10 billion
According to AMBCrypto’s examination of Coinglass data, Open Interest (OI) on the world’s largest Bitcoin futures exchange, CME, increased 3.89% in the past 24 hours to over $10 billion.
The OI has more than doubled since the beginning of 2024.
Source: Coinglass
For the uninitiated, CME’s Standard Futures contract is worth five BTCs and is considered a barometer of institutional interest in cryptocurrencies.
At the time of writing, it accounted for more than 30% of all Bitcoin derivatives investments, with Binance coming in second with 22%.
Spot ETFs are in the spotlight
The high level of speculative interest comes as institutional investors gain easier access to Bitcoin through the recently launched spot ETFs.
According to AMBCrypto’s analysis of SoSo values Data shows that the new ETFs have seen a cumulative trading volume of $7.69 billion since their listing.
Furthermore, as of March 8, these ETFs backed nearly $9.59 billion worth of Bitcoins.
Whales increase Bitcoin exposure
The growing institutional interest was also reflected in the steady increase in whaling.
According to AMBCrypto’s examination of Glassnode’s data, entities holding at least 1k coins have grown 6% year-to-date (YTD). The increased accumulation has helped push Bitcoin’s price higher.
Source: Glassnode
Read Bitcoin’s [BTC] Price forecast 2024-25
Furthermore, around 60% of all whale positions on Binance were long at the time of writing, data from Hyblock Capital shows.
This implied that most institutional investors believed that Bitcoin’s spot price would rise further in the coming days.
Source: Hyblock Capital