Over $2 Billion in New Money Has Flowed into CME Bitcoin Futures This Month

Bitcoin price is ready to pounce at its almost $65,000 all-time high after seeing a mild case of volatility in the past 24 hours.

Late on Sunday, the Bitcoin price dropped just under $59k only to climb back above $62,700 on Monday. Currently hovering around $61k, the leading cryptocurrency is awaiting approval on a US exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Ethereum and much of the cryptocurrency market behaved the same way, with the total market cap at $2.55 trillion, down from a high of $2.62 trillion earlier in the day, according to CoinGecko.

While whales continue to accumulate BTC with Bitcoin “Supply Per Whale” basically never dropping since 2017, retail is also just as interested in BTC along with Ethereum, Cardano, and Solana. ETH -0.37% Ethereum / USD ETHUSD $ 1,848.09
-$6.84-0.37% Volume 4.44 b Change -$6.84 Open $1,848.09 Circulating 120.23 m Market Cap 222.19 b 1 y Coinbase Predicts Substantial Growth of Newer L1 Chains & Institutionalization of Regulated DeFi 1 y A Possible Crypto Recovery Moving Into New Year, Risk-on Sentiments Send The Stock Market to Another Record High 1 y The Sandbox Game Is Migrating to Ethereum Sidechain Polygon and Launching A DAO in 2022 ADA -3.86% Cardano / USD ADAUSD $ 0.32
-$0.01-3.86% Volume 302.85 m Change -$0.01 Open $0.32 Circulating 34.9 b Market Cap 11.03 b 1 y Bitcoin Is Back Above $51k and Ether $4,100 as The Cryptocurrency Market Goes Green 1 y Bitcoin and Ether Breaks Trend With Outflows While Altcoins Continue to See Inflows 1 y Solana (SOL) Bucks the Trend, Along With Tron (TRX), by Recording Highest Inflows After Bitcoin (BTC): Report SOL -0.05% Solana / USD SOLUSD $ 18.84
-$0.01-0.05% Volume 256.24 m Change -$0.01 Open $18.84 Circulating 398.19 m Market Cap 7.5 b 1 y Coinbase Predicts Substantial Growth of Newer L1 Chains & Institutionalization of Regulated DeFi 1 y Bitcoin and Ether Dump More Going Into Year-End, ETH Killers Showing Great Momentum 1 y Bitcoin and Ether Breaks Trend With Outflows While Altcoins Continue to See Inflows

According to a Bloomberg report, the Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber, which launched just a year and a half ago, has 11 million users whose average age is 25. Interestingly, the majority (55%) of this user base is from outside large metropolises like New Delhi or Mumbai and from a generation with no experience with stocks and bonds.

The trend of vertical accumulation from 2020 looks very similar to another chart…

The US Fed Balance sheet pic.twitter.com/aajRf192CQ

— Charles Edwards (@caprioleio) October 18, 2021

All eyes are currently on the first futures ETF to make its debut which is expected to come on Tuesday. It could easily see us hitting a new all-time high.

While some feel this could result in some profit-taking as traders sell the news, others are pretty clear that it won’t be the case.

Crypto trader Light, who shorted CME launch in December 2017 and then shorted Coinbase listing in April 2021 that marked the top for Bitcoin, says, “it's not a sell the news event when a large part of the market is worried it may be a sell the news event.”

Hot money and mid-iq long-timeframe dinosaurs have materially de-risked going into the ATH on Bitcoin and ETF launch.

BDE speculators have soaked that inventory and aren't selling any time soon.

R/r for any player in size favors not playing games here.

— light (@lightcrypto) October 18, 2021

But no matter the bulls or bears, volatility is expected going into this week, which we already saw last week.

“Overall the volatility on Bitcoin is going to be high irrespective of how the decision plays out,” said Pankaj Balani, chief executive officer of crypto-derivatives exchange Delta Exchange, in a note.

So far this month, Bitcoin has increased more than 43% in value. The technical setups for the cryptocurrency, however, is a concern for Risk Bensignor, the president of Bensignor Investment Strategies and a former strategist at Morgan Stanley, to whom the price action might “make me think twice about buying Bitcoin now, especially as it’s against all-time highs,” he said in a note Monday.

Bensignor further said that open interest (OI) rose dramatically during this rally which means that “there are lots of new shorts on this up move that are badly under water — that still may need to get fully squeezed out before the buying might dry up.”

Striking similarities between Crypto adoption and internet user growth of the early 1990s – Morgan Stanley pic.twitter.com/K70jumHCrH

— Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) October 18, 2021

As we reported, OI has risen significantly since Sept. 29 low of $13.11 bln. On Monday, it went to hit $23.11 bln, as per Bybt.

Binance is leading this race with OI at a new high of $5.5 bln, followed by CME and FTX sitting at second place with new highs at $3.97 bln in notional OI. At the beginning of this month, CME’s OI was sitting at $1.7 bln and just two days before that at $1.4 bln, while today, it is ready to surpass $4 bln.

With the Bitcoin Futures ETF involving the contracts from CME, traders on the regulated exchange are making a lot of purchases as CME Bitcoin futures’ market share rose to nearly 20% from just 13% a week back.