On April 11, the open interest in Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Bitcoin futures fell to $8.41 billion, marking its lowest level in 14 months. According to BlockBeats, Glassnode analysts attribute this decline primarily to the unwinding of basis trades. Previously, this strategy involved establishing long positions through spot ETFs and hedging with short futures to earn the spread. However, the annualized returns have recently dropped from 15%-20% to around 5%, prompting institutions to take profits.
Additionally, the daily trading volume of CME Bitcoin futures has decreased to below $3 billion. Analysts suggest that as institutional demand shifts towards directly holding spot assets, the leverage in the futures market is significantly decreasing.#BitcoinFutures #OpenInterest #CME #BasisTrades #InstitutionalStrategy #SpotETFs #FuturesMarket #Leverage #TradingVolume #BlockBeats #Glassnode #CryptoMarket #BTC