According to ChainCatcher, Vetle Lunde, a senior researcher at K33 Research, said that CME Bitcoin futures open interest hit a nominal record high yesterday, reaching 172,430 BTC. With the sharp increase in open interest, the futures premium has climbed to a 5-month high.

The researcher believes that the growth in open interest is driven by active/direct market participants, rather than inflows into futures-based ETFs.