The new spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds, only four days old, have stimulated crypto markets — well, at least the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Ethereum ETFs have already caused record highs in open interest on the CME, Giovanni Vicioso, the firm’s global head of cryptocurrency products, told DL News.
“Trading of spot Ethereum ETFs in the US has reinvigorated the market, driving significant growth in volume across our Ether suite and leading to record open interest for our flagship Ether futures,” he said.
Open interest is a metric that reflects the total number of futures contracts outstanding. Futures contracts enable investors to buy an asset at a specific price on a predetermined date.
There is $1.1 billion in Ether futures on CME, per CoinGlass data. The ETF launch led the CME to break its prior record — notched in June — by pushing open interest to $1.4 billion.
The exchange also saw $2.6 billion in Ether futures trading volume on launch day — marking its second-highest volumes since May 25, after the ETFs were approved in all-but-official terms by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
And the number entities holding more than 25 Ether futures contracts, worth $162,500 at the time of writing, has increased 9% since the first quarter of 2024, notching yet again another record. That means larger players are making their way to the platform.
Even so, the CME is still only the fifth-largest venue for Ether futures trading, behind Binance, Bybit, OKX, and Bitget, with Binance notching $4.7 billion in open interest, and Bybit $2.8 billion.
By comparison, back in November the exchange overtook Binance to become the biggest venue for Bitcoin futures — two months before spot Bitcoin ETFs launched.
It’s also uncertain whether Ether volumes and open interest will remain strong for long.
August could see a near-term spike in volatility, Adam Morgan McCarthy, an analyst at crypto data firm Kaiko Research, told DL News.
“Ether will likely remain sensitive to flows in and out of the newly formed spot ETFs,” he said, highlighting the rather large outflows experienced by Grayscale Investments’ freshly converted fund.
If Ether volatility dies out after outflows stabilise, volumes and open interest could soon follow.
Tom Carreras is a markets correspondent at DL News. Got a tip about AI and crypto? Reach out at tcarreras@dlnews.com
