CryptoCompare Analysis: Crypto Rally Sees Derivatives Volumes & CME Open Interest Hit All-Time Highs

In addition to our usual monthly Exchange Review, we wanted to provide some context to the incredible rally the digital asset markets have seen in 2021. Bitcoin reached the $40,000 milestone yesterday and after a brief pullback to $38,000, it's back over $40,000 and is climbing towards the next significant psychological milestone of $50,000.

This rally has been supported by record trading activity:

• On January 3rd a daily record of $68.3 billion was set, which eclipsed the peak of the 2017 bull run in December, when daily volumes hit a high of $27.8 billion.
• December saw record highs for CME's bitcoin futures product, signalling institutional investors are a key driver of price.
• Google Trends data shows search interest for bitcoin is only a 1/3rd of what we saw in December 2017, another strong indicator that in this rally it is the retail traders who are late to the party.

Below are some of the key highlights from our December Exchange Review.

Key Highlights

Derivatives Volumes Reach All-Time Monthly High

Derivatives volumes increased 8.6% in December to an all-time monthly high of $1.43tn. Meanwhile, total spot volumes increased by 30% to $1.19tn. The derivatives market now represents almost 54.6% of the total crypto market (vs 60% in November).

Top-Tier Spot Exchanges Gain Market Share and Set Daily Volume Record

In December, Top-Tier volumes increased 32.2% to $818.3bn while Lower-Tier volumes increased 23.8% to $355.7bn. Top-Tier exchanges now represent 69.7% of total volume (vs 68.29% in November).

Top-Tier exchanges also traded a daily maximum of $51.2bn on December 17th, which represents a new all-time high. The previous record occurred last month where $46.2bn was traded on November 24th.

CME Had the Highest BTC Futures Open Interest in December

CME had the highest open interest for BTC futures at $1.31bn (up 36.5%) followed by OKEx at $1.11bn (up 27.6%).

However, on aggregate across all futures products, OKEx had the highest open interest of $1.8bn (up 0.6% vs November). This was followed by Binance ($1.7bn, down 20%) and CME ($1.3bn, up 36.5%).