Bitcoin futures hit highest volume since Black Thursday

The BitcoinBitcoin futures market had its busiest day on Wednesday since the historic Black Thursday market crash in mid-March.

Per data from crypto market analytics firm Skew, April 29 futures trading surged to just over $30 billion. This is roughly 40% shy of the $50 billion in volume the Bitcoin’s futures market saw on March 12 when Bitcoin’s price plummeted alongside a macro market selloff. 

Of course, the price is going the opposite way on this go around. The futures volume surge is on the back of (or more rightly, has been the legs for) a 13% green daily candle that threw Bitcoin’s price from $7,600 for a daily close of $8,750. Bitcoin peaked yesterday above $9,000 per coin, briefly hitting nearly $9,422.

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Crypto exchanges Bitfinex, Binance and Huobi enjoyed the most volume, netting $23.2 billion between themselves alone. Bitmex, once the undisputed leader in the futures market, saw only $5.3 billion in volume, as its dominance continues to wane post Black Thursday.

Total open interest in the Bitcoin futures market (i.e. how many trades are still open) has climbed back above $2 billion. The futures market topped an all-time high of $5 billion in open interest on February 12, only to have it crater to $1.8 billion a month later.

This impressive rally coincided with positive price action for oil, major stock indices and other major assets. Meanwhile, 3.8 million more Americans filed for unemployment last week.

How Black Thursday reshaped the Bitcoin futures market

Bitcoin’s precipitous price drop on Black Thursday dramatically shifted market share distribution in the Bitcoin futures landscape. A report today from the crypto research firm Coin Metrics confirms what Bitcoin market professionals had previously told Decrypt: The Bitcoin futures market has been fundamentally altered by one of the worst days in the history of global markets. A king dethroned Black Thursday was a defining blow in a fight for market share among crypto exchanges that began in 2019...

Speaking of the little guys, they may have had a hand in this rally, as well. According to data from Messari, Bitcoin’s total spot volume, a reliable metric to measure retail investor interest, has seen nearly $7 billion in volume over the past two days.

At the moment, Bitcoin has slid to just below $8,800 and is down 1 percent in the last 24 hours.