Global Bitcoin Futures Reach Six-Month High Above $50 Billion

The global Bitcoin futures market has hit a six-month high of $52 billion, as noted by market insights platform Unfolded. 

Bitcoin futures allow investors to gain an exposure to Bitcoin without having to actually hold any Bitcoin itself. Much like any futures contract for a traditional asset, Bitcoin futures are speculative investments about the future price and value of Bitcoin. And, right now, they’re booming.

According to data on Coinalyze.net, the Bitcoin futures market hit $52 billion on November 18, 2020. This milestone follows a steady increase in volumes over the last month. 

On October 18, 2020, the market total was at $4.5 billion, before increasing to $30 billion and $38 billion on October 21 and November 5 respectively. This increase also represents a huge 1,055% percentage increase over the last month. 

The share of this futures market is dominated by crypto exchange Binance, which holds a total of $16.1 billion worth of Bitcoin futures. In second place is crypto exchange Huobi’s futures platform HuobiDM, with a total share worth $12.7 billion. 

These two exchanges hold over 50% of the Bitcoin futures market, but the rest of the market is more evenly spread out. 

Coming in third, fourth and fifth are OKEx, Bybit and BitMEX. These three exchanges hold $7.2 billion, $6.2 billion and $4 billion worth of the Bitcoin futures market respectively.

And what’s caused this surge in demand? Well Bitcoin’s rapid price rise, obviously.