According to UK-based crypto derivatives research boutique Skew, the total volume of Bitcoin (BTC) futures reached nearly $50 bln on March 12, which ended up being one of the most hectic days in the asset’s 11-year history.
For comparison, the net worth of Tesla CEO Elon Musk currently stands at $34.4 bln after the shares of the electric car manufacturer tumbled below $600.
2/. Nearly $50bln bitcoin futures were traded across crypto exchanges with two exchanges - OKEx & BitMEX - > $10bln and eight > $1bln pic.twitter.com/1pqTwQaCoF
— skew (@skewdotcom) March 13, 2020
Insane volumes
The Skew data shows that both BitMEX and OKEx traded more than $10 bln worth of BTC futures contracts. There were also eight exchanges whose trading volumes surpassed $1 bln.
Notably, Bakkt’s physically-delivered BTC futures didn’t see a significant spike in volumes with 1,777 traded contracts.
Thursday's Bakkt Bitcoin Monthly Futures:
— Bakkt Volume Bot (@BakktBot) March 13, 2020
? Traded contracts: 1777 ($8.80 million, +50%)
? All time high: 6601 (12/18/2019)
? Open interest: $4.97 million (-32%)
Trade while you sleep and take your emotion out of the equation: https://t.co/W8ClGYnuNn pic.twitter.com/1N64WYifmm
Is BitMEX losing its power?
BitMEX defined the 2018 crypto market because it was the go-to destination for trading crypto derivatives. As of February, their Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading volume reached the important milestone of $2 trln.
Since then, its market share has drastically declined, but it remains a force to be reckoned with in the crypto space.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX, posted his theory that BitMEX went offline today in order not to liquidate its whole order book and prevent the BTC price from crashing to $0, but the exchange denied it.
Vladislav Sopov