Bitcoin futures offered by Chicago-based CME Group have recorded their biggest gap to date of over $3,000.
After opening nearly 12 percent higher, their trading was temporarily halted at the open due to massive upside volatility.
The biggest Bitcoin futures market
The biggest futures exchange on the planet – which boasts annual revenue of $4.9 billion – launched cash-settled Bitcoin contracts on Dec. 17, 2017, just one day after the cryptocurrency reached the apex of its previous bull run.
CME became the second well-established regulated exchange to embrace Bitcoin after rivaling Cboe. The latter, however, pulled the plug on Bitcoin futures in March 2019 due to waning interest in crypto trading while the former ended up thriving.
Last month, CME surpassed Malta-based unregulated trading platform OKEx due to growing institutional interest, becoming the biggest futures market for the world’s number one cryptocurrency.
In February 2021, the exchange is slated to roll out Ethereum futures.
The gap could have been much bigger
While the Bitcoin market is open 24/7, CME’s futures markets are closed for the weekends. This creates gaps that are widely tracked by cryptocurrency traders since they often end up getting filled sooner or later.
The latest gap could have been much larger if Bitcoin had managed to hold onto its recent gains.
As reported by U.Today, the cryptocurrency briefly topped $28,000 before retracing to $25,782 within the same 24 hours. This resulted in arguably one of the ugliest daily candles ever.
Still, Bitcoin is up 18 percent over the past seven days.