Trading volume on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in January reached its highest level since October 2021. The CME is used by major institutions to trade Bitcoin (BTC) futures products. The surge in trading volume coincided with the approval of Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US last month.
CME trading volume increases
Total trading volume on the CME rose 35 percent to $94.9 billion last month. As mentioned earlier, CME offers investors the opportunity to invest in futures products, including Bitcoin futures. This gives investors the opportunity to gain exposure to BTC without having to purchase BTC themselves.
With the introduction of spot ETFs, investors now have a third way to gain exposure to BTC. What is noteworthy is that the volume of Bitcoin futures products only increased in January. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues in February.
Shifting interest to Ethereum
The trading volume of Ethereum (ETH) CME futures products also saw an increase last month. Volume increased by 15.6 percent. After the launch of Bitcoin ETFs, attention seems to be cautiously shifting to Ethereum, the number two in crypto land.
After the launch of the Bitcoin ETF, the price of Ethereum rose rapidly by more than 15 percent to a level of around $2,700. This reaction was also a sign of the changing interest in Ethereum.
After the launch of Bitcoin ETFs, speculation began about a possible Ethereum spot ETF. There is no concrete information about a possible Ethereum spot ETF yet. Investors seem to be expecting such a scenario.
Also interesting to mention is the ETH price compared to BTC. Following the Bitcoin ETF approval, ETH/BTC rose by more than 27 percent within a week. Since then, this trading pair has dipped slightly. However, the increase could be an indication of a possible reversal of the downtrend that the trading pair has been in since September 2022.
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