A growing number of indicators suggest that institutional players are continuing to enter the digital asset markets, which have been dominated to date by high-net-worth individuals and actively trading crypto enthusiasts. Case in point: Crypto markets are seeing all-time highs in futures contracts’ open interest at entities such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Widely known as one of the world’s largest financial derivatives exchanges, the CME enables sophisticated traders to trade in asset classes such as agricultural products, energy, metals and crypto futures and options.
Traders on the CME are generally institutions, not individuals, which is why this open interest in the digital asset market is noteworthy. Institutions that are already onboarded and active on the CME — trading wheat and oil for example — are increasingly moving into crypto futures as an alternative asset class. In fact, derivatives volume increased to an all-time high in May, totaling $602 billion while total spot volumes increased 5% to $1.27 trillion. As a result, derivatives represented 32% of the digital asset market in May, compared with 27% in April, according to CryptoCompare’s most recent Crypto Exchange Review.
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