Bitcoin Options Open Interest Rises 50% in a Month to Hit $1.5 Billion

According to the latest data from market analysis company Skew, total open interest in Bitcoin (BTC) options passed $1.5 billion on June 9. This comes barely a month after open interest crossed $1 billion for the first time, marking a 50% increase in just 33 days.

50% rise in a month led by two players

Total Bitcoin options open interest hit $1 billion for the first time ever on May 7. Just over a month later, Deribit alone has open interest of $1.1 billion, and the total open interest has broken through $1.5 billion.

Deribit’s 20% increase from $903 million over the course of the month has not been the biggest story though.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has increased its Bitcoin options open interest by over 850% in this time. On May 7 this stood at $38 million, but by June 9 CME recorded $368 million of open interest.

CME aiming for the options crown?

As Cointelegraph reported, in the first half of May alone, open interest on CME Bitcoin options soared a massive 1,000% from $12 million to $142 million.

While unable to sustain quite that level of growth, the latest figures show that CME’s options momentum is far from running out of steam.

Of the other major players in the BTC options market, LedgerX open interest remained roughly the same since May 7 at $52 million while OKEx saw a 15% fall to $65 million.

An outlier in the field, Bakkt also saw a fall in open interest, from $80,000 to $68,000.

Despite this, the performance of both Deribit and CME shows that Bitcoin options is a rapidly growing market sector.