It seems that there are some interesting times for the crypto markets these past few weeks. With random flash-crashes having occurred just recently, a trend within the Bitcoin futures market is starting to pop up, as well. As it stands now, market data is clearly indicating a new all-time high when it comes to aggregated open interest within the Bitcoin futures market. This was recorded on the 1st of August, 2020.
Massive Spike In Open Interest
The Block, a popular crypto news outlet, gave a brief explanation about the matter. The data the Block provides shows that the total aggregate open interest managed to hit a high of $5.575 billion, topping the previous all-time high, which was recorded on the 14th of February, 2020, at $5.369 billion.
Open interest, in the context of Bitcoin futures, stands as a representation of the total value of Bitcoin futures contracts that have yet to be settled. Information given by the Block makes it clear that the aggregate open interest in Bitcoin futures suffered a catastrophic nosedive when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the world back in March. Within the crypto industry, the entire space managed to halve itself in value, and has come to be referred to as “Black Thursday.”
Four Big Players Remaining Strong
With the data provided, it’s clear that the heavyweight players within the Bitcoin Futures market are as follows: OKEx, BitMEX, CME, and Huobi. These four entities have continued to stand as the significant heavyweights within the bitcoin futures space.
It was just last week when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) gave out a report, detailing a new all-time-high for its Bitcoin futures offering. In particular, the CME managed to hit $724 million in open interest for its cash-settled Bitcoin futures offerings.
The Crypto Flash-Crash
This past weekend proved to be a troubling time for crypto holders, as the crypto market at large saw a massive spike in volatility. This was due to two of the major coins in the space, Bitcoin and Ether, seeing a flash-crash within a matter of minutes.
This flash-crash occurred just as the assets experienced a one-year peak in value. The end result was a bit of a disaster, as many crypto traders were caught entirely off-guard. The result of this flash-crash was liquidations, $1.33 billion worth of it. This crash managed to affect crypto exchanges, as well as some 70,245 crypto traders, with one of the largest liquidations suffering a loss of $10 million in value.
One of the more notable events is the FTX exchange had a system failure in a few traders’ stop-loss. However, it should be noted that FTX had already gone in the process of compensating the traders that had their stop-losses inexplicably fail.
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