Report Shows Crypto Derivatives Volumes Soared 32% to a Record $602 Billion in May

Cryptocurrency derivatives trading volumes climbed 32% in May to a new record high of $602 billion, according to data analytics company Cryptocompare.

Total spot volumes grew at a slower pace, rising 5% to $1.27 trillion in May, the London-based firm said in a new report published June 4, 2020.

The figures show increasing investor interest in trading derivatives – contracts signed by at least two people to buy or sell a digital asset at an agreed price in the future. For the review month, derivatives market share rose to 32% compared to 27% in April.

May’s all-time-high represents a slight increase over the previous record of $600 billion in March.

Cryptocompare notes that bitcoin (BTC) derivatives saw large increases in trading volume last month, with institutional player Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) rising fastest at 59% to $7.2 billion.

However, Huobi accounted for the largest trade volume of $176 billion, up 29% month-on-month followed by Okex and Binance with $152 billion and $139 billion trades’ worth, respectively.

Hong Kong-based Bitmex traded $94.8 billion, up 37% since April while trades at Deribit soared 22% to $13.4 billion.

Institutional options volumes on CME reached a monthly record of 5,996 contracts, up sixteen-fold from April. The regulated exchange also broke a new daily record on May 28, with trades of 1,418 Bitcoin options contracts. Derebit’s options volume spiked 109% in May to $3.06 billion.

CME’s futures contracts also gained by 36% in May, to volumes of 166,000.

Per the report, spot trading volumes surged sharply a day before the third halving, reaching $64.7 billion on May 10. But this fares lowly compared to the volume spikes of $66.2 billion on April 30, and that of $75.9 billion on March 13, a day after the Black Thursday BTC crash.

Cryptocompare said the bulk of spot trading happened on exchanges it considers low-tier and unregulated, accounting for $49.88 billion of the volume while top-tier exchanges traded $14.86 billion.

What do you think about the growing derivatives trading volume? Let us know in the comments section below.

Tags in this story
Binance, CME, Cryptocompare, Derebit, derivatives, Futures, Huobi, London, Okex, options, spot trading

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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