Open Interest in Red-Hot Ethereum Surpasses Open Interest in Bitcoin

[Btceth01]

Following the recent cryptocurrency market crash that saw the price of bitcoin plunge from a near $64,000 all-time high to $29,900 before it recovered to $36,000, open interest for bitcoin has dropped significantly, while for Ethereum it surged. According to CryptoCompare’s May 2021 Exchange Review, Ethereum’s priced ended the month of May down just 2.5%; however, Ethereum gained market share in the derivatives market, as open interest on the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization rose 9.9% to $6 billion. Open interest on BTC products dropped by 25.8% during the same period, during a period in which open interest across all derivatives products fell by 14.5% to $27.8 billion, with Binance being the exchange with the highest open interest in the space, followed by Huobi and OKEx.Binance had the highest open interest figures for ETH perpetual futures contracts at $1.5 billion, followed by Bybit, Huobi, and OKEx. Regulated futures exchange CME had the highest ETH futures open interest at $489 million, followed by OKEx’s $481 million.Open interest for BTC futures on the CME exchange decreased by 22.9% last month to $2 billion, while ETH open interest averaged $489 million after rising 146% compared to April.Source