Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading has been on a high since July 21 with both the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Bakkt seeing sizeable increases in volume and open interest for their contracts. This resurgence in BTC futures comes as the spot market value of the largest crypto by market capitalization reached a new 2020 high. Two months on from the May 2020 halving event, BTC has begun to show signs of the anticipated bullish advance. Bitcoin usually sets a new all-time high in the year following a block reward subsidy decrease, with BTC optimists stating the trend will continue. Amid the …

With Australian DeFi projects surging, the CEO of crypto exchange Mine Digital said he believes the nation could become a future hub for crypto derivatives in Asia. CEO Grant Colthup made the comments in a webinar hosted on July 29 by Melbourne’s Apollo Capital regarding digital asset infrastructure. Colthorp said many institutional investors in Australia were interested in crypto but were still skittish about getting away from “brick and mortar” financial establishments. But he said crypto derivatives projects across Asian countries have the potential to move into Australia. Cothlup cited those in Hong Kong — where regulations are becoming more …

Blockchain-powered financial services company Diginex launched its new Equos digital asset exchange on July 30. The exchange will initially host crypto asset spot trading, with plans for “perpetual swaps, dated futures, options, and other derivatives products” to soon follow. The platform will support USD and the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin at launch. The spot exchange is licensed under an exemption to the Singapore Payment Services Act, with Diginex having also applied to become a ‘Major Payment Institution’ with the country’s regulator. The platform will also facilitate interoperability with Diginex’s hot and cold digital asset custodian, Digivault, in addition to Diginex’s …

In a Cointelegraph China Great Bay Area International Blockchain Week pre-event interview on July 29, Ben Zhou, CEO of derivative exchange Bybit, argued that the maturity of the derivatives market is the main reason for institutions to enter the crypto space. Biggest concerns for institutional investors Zhou says that the biggest concern for any institution exploring crypto is the need for proper financial tools to run risk management. Risk management is out of reach without a functional, robust derivatives market. He stressed that: “Derivatives markets serve a vital function by contributing to liquidity, providing proper risk management tools and different …

Intercontinental Exchange subsidiary, Bakkt, is reporting record numbers of trades for its monthly Bitcoin futures contracts as BTC prices made a new high for the year. The institutional investing platform reported its highest ever figure for Bitcoin monthly futures on Jul. 28 with 11,506 contracts — an increase of 85% over the previous record. The move followed a surge in the underlying asset’s price to a 2020 high of $11,400. On July 29, Bakkt topped the new record with 11,706 contracts traded. “Talk about momentum! We beat yesterday's record with 11,706 Bakkt Bitcoin Futures traded today - that's over $125MM …

OKEx, the second largest crypto options trading platform after Deribit, is expanding its options trading types. Starting July 24, OKEx features new crypto options trading opportunities including daily options, two-day options, and monthly options. OKEx now features seven expiration date options Announcing the news on Friday, OKEx said that the three new expiration dates follow previously launched weekly, bi-weekly, quarterly, and bi-quarterly options. The new options intend to promote market liquidity and provide more choices to execute various trading strategies. The introduction of shorter expiration dates also aims to lower the threshold for options trading, enabling traders to participate with …

Delta Exchange, a crypto derivatives platform, announced the launch of an interest rate swap contract for DAI, MakerDAO’s dollar-pegged stablecoin. The contract will allow its purchasers to enter interest swaps on the Dai Savings Rate, which the exchange sees as a way for Maker (MKR) borrowers to fix their stability fee interest payments, which are routed into the Savings Rate as earnings for DAI holders. Interest rate swaps are a type of derivative contract established between two counterparties with opposite goals, similar to options and futures. One of the parties wants to lock in their interest rate payments to a …

Since early 2020, the institutional demand for Bitcoin (BTC) has been steadily increasing. In the second quarter of this year, data show that the appetite for BTC spiked significantly. According to crypto asset fund Grayscale, its products recorded an inflow of $1.4 billion in capital. The investment firm is best known for the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which allows institutions in the United States to gain exposure to Bitcoin through a publicly-traded over-the-counter stock. If the demand for Bitcoin climbed steadily in the first three months of 2020, it surged rapidly from March to June. One possible explanation for the sudden …

Crypto-focused institutional trading desks are lately springing up. While Wall Street investment banks and hedge funds are still in the early stages of involvement, a class of crypto-native funds founded by institutional pros is by now well established. Cointelegraph interviewed the co-founder of one of these funds, CMS Holdings’ Dan Matuszewski, to learn more about his views on the crypto market. Before involving himself in crypto in 2012, Matuszewski worked for some years at Bay Hill, an institutional hedge fund. Most of his career was nevertheless tied to crypto, with a brief stint at Kraken and a longer tenure as …

At the same time that volatility and short-term implied volatility have been sucked out of the market, longer dated options (six months or so until expiration) are still pricing closer to their historical average volatility in the 70% range. This steepness in implied volatility term structure suggests one of two things: Investors expect that this period of low volatility will be transitory and that a catalyst in the next couple of months will once again rock markets, or perhaps sellers of options are just not willing to make a longer-term bet, and as such, are not providing any supply in …

The first half of 2020 has been wild for just about everyone in every asset class. In early March, when it became evident that COVID-19 was a seismic event, asset markets across the globe crashed. One important reason was that levered investors suddenly received margin calls and were forced to liquidate assets to satisfy them. When the only thing anybody cares about is cash, there is no such thing as a safe asset or a defensive investment. During the crash, companies rushed to access their revolving credit lines, bolstering cash reserves as quickly as possible in fear that if they …

Digital asset data firm Brave New Coin (BNC) has inked a multi-year deal with the Toronto Futures Options Swaps Exchange (tFOSE) to power its crypto options trading. BNC’s data will enable the new Canadian derivatives exchange and clearinghouse to offer cash-settled crypto derivatives to global clients. The partnership will see BNC “design, calculate, and administer a suite of cryptocurrency indices to power cash-settled options trading on tFOSE.” 2021 launch for crypto options James Beattie, the president and chief executive of tFOSE, stated that BNC was chosen after the exchange conducted extensive research into crypto market data providers. “Brave New Coin …