The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is approaching the last weekly candle for the month of August. Some traders believe Bitcoin’s performance over the next two weeks could decide whether its price drops below $10,000 again or sees an extended uptrend. The week’s weekly candle close coincides with the expiration of CME’s Bitcoin futures contracts and Deribit’s options contracts. It could potentially set a precedent for September, especially if Bitcoin closes above or below key levels. In the short term, technical analysts generally consider $11,800 as the key level for Bitcoin. A high time frame close below the level would raise …

Bitcoin derivatives witnessed a major expiry event with a notional value of over $1 billion. Today, $272 million of Bitcoin futures expired on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, while over 65,000 Bitcoin options contracts expired across Deribit, CME and OKEx, having a notional value of over $740 million. Usually, major expiry events bring about a considerable change in volatility and price that can be seen through derivatives volumes, open interest and even put/call ratios. The Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives market, consisting mainly of Bitcoin futures and options, has grown multifold in 2020. This growth has seen the relationship between BTC’s price and …

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Bitcoin futures and options markets are set to mature this Friday, leading some traders to fear that the most recent BTC dump is a presage of weakening markets. According to a September 2019 Cointelegraph and Arcane Research report, there is typically a 2.3% drop ahead of each monthly CME expiry. Given the size of the upcoming expiry, it’s worth taking a moment to evaluate new data to evaluate if these ‘CME drop’ ghosts continue to spook the markets. The 2019 study mulls "deliberate manipulation" as a culprit but aside from that, it did find that 15 …

In its finalized strategy for the next four years, released on July 8, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission has made comprehensive crypto regulation a priority. New strategy promises to embrace innovation “We will develop a holistic framework to promote responsible innovation in digital assets,” the new framework promises within its strategic objectives. The new framework puts out goals for the next four years, up until 2024, which is when current Chairman Heath Tarbert’s term is scheduled to end. The broad strategy includes heavily pro-innovation language, for which Tarbert and predecessors at the CFTC are well-known in the crypto …

On June 26, $675 million worth of Bitcoin options expired, while industry experts remain divided on its potential effect on price volatility. Some believe the record expiration date will cause Bitcoin (BTC) to see a large price movement. With less than 24 hours until the highly anticipated expiration, Bitcoin’s price dropped by 7% on a single day on June 24. Traders speculate the drop was partially triggered by the uncertainty in the United States’ stock market. A rising number of coronavirus infections and concerns around the high unemployment rate led to an overall increase in caution toward risk-on assets, including …

A cryptocurrency derivatives exchange led by eight former Morgan Stanley executives claims it is the world’s fastest. Phemex says its “user-oriented” approach has led to the creation of an ecosystem where traders can buy and sell contracts with confidence. The platform offers latency speeds of under one millisecond, and the company claims that its infrastructure can handle more than 300,000 transactions per second. Reliability is another crucial concern. To this end, it offers 99.9999% availability. Given that some of the more established exchanges in the marketplace have suffered outages whenever Bitcoin has made major price moves, this could prove crucial …

Most traders fail to understand how Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives exchanges handle their risk. There is a consensus that the winners get paid by the losing parties, but it is not as simple as it seems. Insurance funds were initially designed to protect clients positions during excessive volatile periods. Nonetheless, some exchanges such as BitMEX display a relatively steady insurance fund hoarding despite significant hourly price swings of 10% or higher. BitMEX insurance fund vs. Bitcoin. Source: cointrader.pro The above chart shows that the BitMEX insurance fund (orange line in BTC terms) was nearly unscathed after $1 billion worth of longs …

Crypto derivatives volumes have hit a new record high in May 2020. The early generation of crypto investors mostly worked with a hold-and-sell perspective. With the inevitable evolution of the market and the advent of cryptocurrency derivatives, investors with varied agendas — such as the desire to trade Bitcoin (BTC) volatility in both directions, hedging against major market movements, mitigating risks, etc. — began to flock to this asset class. Derivatives are complex financial instruments that enable these agendas but often prove to be overwhelming for inexperienced and uninitiated investors to manage. As derivatives are pegged to an alternative asset …

Trading Bitcoin (BTC) futures might seem easy on the surface but there are a number of fees that investors seeking big returns from high leverage trades ignore. In addition to trading fees, investors should also be aware of the variable funding rate that many exchanges levy and even maker and taker fees should be taken into account. Let’s take a look at three things every crypto trader should know about trading Bitcoin futures. Know the funding rate There are quite a few hidden costs when trading Bitcoin futures contracts. The most basic one is the funding rate charged to all …

CME Bitcoin (BTC) futures and options markets expired on May 29, and despite a $100 hiccup, the price of the largest digital asset on CoinMarketCap held up nicely around the $9,400 level. As the market entered this last trading session, open interest for CME Bitcoin futures expiring in May was rather small at $30 million. This does not mean institutional traders abandoned Bitcoin markets, as open interest for upcoming months remains at a healthy $400 million level. Another essential gauge of institutional investors' appetite, CME Bitcoin options markets, traded $120 million worth of $11,000 and $13,000 call options for the …

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) suddenly dropped from $10,000 to $8,600 on BitMEX as nearly $140 million worth of long contracts were liquidated. The pullback came merely 16 hours after BTC surged to $10,473, testing the dreaded $10,500 resistance level. Bitcoin typically sees a heightened level of volatility when it approaches key dates. Crucial periods in the cryptocurrency market include CME futures expirations and the closure of a weekly or monthly candle. The 14% price plunge, which happened within merely five minutes, occurred without any futures or options expiration dates on the horizon. Cryptocurrency trader Hsaka emphasized the abrupt spike …

There’s an increasing number of exchanges offering futures contracts trading. So far there’s Binance, FTX, Bitfinex, Bybit, and Kraken, to name just a few. Volumes are also picking up across the board and it appears that retail traders are growing more interested in experimenting with these complex instruments. As recently reported by Cointelegraph, there are multiple benefits to using futures trading. Traders using them can hedge and maintain peace of mind during periods of high volatility. Futures contracts can be used to reduce risk and leverage bets when the appropriate strategies are deployed. Professional traders frequently utilize futures contracts for …