Ether Futures Volume on FTX Hit Record Highs

Hong Kong-based crypto derivatives change FTX noticed document volumes in ether (ETH) futures on Wednesday amid a sell-off within the cryptocurrency’s worth.

Every day buying and selling quantity on the nine-month-old change jumped to a lifetime excessive of $245 million, marking a 51 % improve from Tuesday’s quantity of $162 million, in response to Skew Markets. The earlier document excessive of $189 million was reached on Feb. 20. 

Whereas volumes on FTX spiked, the cryptocurrency’s worth fell by 10 % from $251 to $215 to hit the bottom stage since Feb. 8. 

Buying and selling exercise has been rising since early January and has witnessed spectacular progress over the past 4 weeks, as seen under.

All through the second half of 2019, futures registered day by day quantity of greater than $25 million solely seven instances. The state of affairs modified in mid-January with the futures witnessing a day by day quantity of greater than $45 million for 3 consecutive days. 

Every day quantity rose from $12 million on Jan. 27 to $245 million on Feb. 26, a staggering 1,784 % improve. 

Quantity progress has been accompanied by a pointy rise within the open curiosity.

Open curiosity, or the variety of futures contracts excellent on the change, rose from $8.Four million to a document excessive of $81 million within the 5 weeks to Feb. 20. Open positions stood at $72 million on Wednesday. 

Exercise on FTX appears to have been boosted by ether’s strong worth rally. 

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market worth traded close to $125 in early January and rose to a seven-month excessive of $289 on Feb. 19, in response to CoinDesk’s Ether Value Index. At press time, ether was buying and selling at $228, representing a 77 % achieve on a year-to-date foundation. 

Different exchanges are additionally reporting a strong progress within the ether futures buying and selling volumes. BitMEX, one of many largest derivatives exchanges, traded $1.Four billion quantity on Feb. 13, the very best since July 15, 2019, in response to Skew Markets. 

Complete day by day volumes throughout 9 exchanges rose to $5.2 billion on Wednesday, the very best since Might 2019. 

Every day volumes have topped $5 billion 4 instances up to now this month. 

FTX accounted for 4.7 % of the overall quantity of $5.2 billion registered on Wednesday. In the meantime, BitMEX contributed 18 % of the overall quantity. 

Whereas FTX stays an underdog, it’s slowly consuming into BitMEX’s buying and selling quantity, as noted by dealer John Dummet.

Complete spinoff quantity traded by FTX as a proportion of BitMEX quantity not too long ago rose above 40 %, marking an enormous rise from 10 % famous at first of the yr. 

It stays to be seen whether or not FTX is ready to hold the momentum going. Nonetheless, the general derivatives area may proceed to develop because the market volatility and uncertainty is anticipated to stay excessive forward of bitcoin’s reward halving due in Might.