[2018-07-21] CME Bitcoin Futures Daily Volume Spikes 93% in Q2 2018

[moriskarlov]

CME Group’s bitcoin futures average daily volume spiked 93% in the second quarter over the previous quarter, while open interest posted a 58% increase, the company noted on Twitter. Average daily volume jumped from 1,854 in the first quarter to 3,577 in the second quarter, while open interest rose from 1,523 to 2,405 in the same period.

CME provides its CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) and CME CF Bitcoin Real-Time Index (BRTI) as standardized reference rate and spot price indices. The indices have independent oversight are intended to accelerate the professionalization of bitcoin trading.

CME CF Crypto Currencies Indices have produced the BRR and BRTI rates since November of 2016 with numerous bitcoin exchanges and trading platforms – including Bitstamp, GDAX, itBit and Kraken – that provide pricing data.

The BRR aggregates the trade of the bitcoin exchanges during a specific window into a daily reference rate of the bitcoin price in U.S. dollars. The calculation is geared to maximize transparency and real-time replicability in the spot markets.

See more - https://www.ccn.com/cme-bitcoin-futures-daily-volume-spikes-93-in-q2-2018/

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[Kakmakr]

It will be very interesting to see what their positions are, with these Futures. I suspect that a lot of these investors have some inside information on the direction that the SEC would go with their decision on the Bitcoin ETF and their positions will support that.

If the majority are shorting Bitcoin, then we should look for the red flags.    A lot of these investors shorted Bitcoin in the past and they lost millions. 

[Carlton Banks]

A lot of these investors shorted Bitcoin in the past and they lost millions. 

That would demonstrate how dysfunctional these so-called "Bitcoin futures markets" are.

The whole point of futures markets is to buy contracts to deliver something at a future price, not today's price. Because the CME and CBOE don't sell contracts to deliver BTC, but the USD equivalent, the BTC price cannot affect the trading on these markets, or vice versa (except perhaps psychologically).

This strongly suggests that there is backroom dealing whereby BTC is delivered to some unnofficial (and undocumented) tier of these futures markets. Who would trade such contracts otherwise? What would be the point of putting up money for weeks and weeks that does nothing to influence the real BTC markets? That would be little different to putting money on a horse (and I think we all know these days that people with alot of money to bet on sporting events have a penchant for trying to meddle with the outcome so that they win their bet).

This whole concept of "trading BTC without touching the dirty BTC markets" is a complete joke, there's no way any real investor would really do something so crude, you may as well get yourself down to the roulette wheel and put everything on black, lol. And after all, these are Chicago-based markets

[1Referee]

Carlton, don't waste much time on these Bitcoin futures. It's nothing more than a product that belongs in a casino rather than such a professional platform.

It's a tool for people with a bunch of cash betting on the price to go up or down. They either make money or lose money. Nothing more nothing less.

Good use of futures is already being utilized by miners. They contractually up front sell you x number of coins for $7500 a pop, and the deal gets completed at the end of the contract term. That's how they hedge a steep decrease in price, but of course, it can also work against you if the price suddenly starts pumping. Either way, it offers miners at least a peace of mind.

[Carlton Banks]

Good use of futures is already being utilized by miners. They contractually up front sell you x number of coins for $7500 a pop, and the deal gets completed at the end of the contract term. That's how they hedge a steep decrease in price, but of course, it can also work against you if the price suddenly starts pumping. Either way, it offers miners at least a peace of mind.

Exactly, a real futures market.

What you're saying demonstrates the problem: the miners doing this must offer a lower price than the current market price for a future delivery contract. Otherwise, why buy at today's market price for something delivered next month, when you could buy for the market price today and receive it instantly? (this is a method for figuring out that ETF prices for any commodity are being manipulated, i.e. futures prices are higher than spot prices) This is the kind of dynamics you get in real futures markets that these BS Chicago exchanges are (at least superficially) missing.