Bitcoin futures volumes drop tremendously while spot Bitcoin ETFs observe growing demand.
A Glassnode report revealed that Bitcoin (BTC) futures daily volumes have declined by more than 50%. “The volumes traded across all futures contracts ($35B per day) remain somewhat subdued, especially compared to the elevated volumes when the market peaked at the ATH in March,” the report read.
A futures contract is an agreement between a buyer and seller to acquire assets at a certain time in the future. BTC futures were exhibiting massive trade volumes some months ago when the largest crypto asset hit its all-time high (ATH) price point of over $73,000 in March. Glassnode mentioned that number averaging at $80 billion daily. Now, it has reduced to about $35 billion.
The futures touched this volume previously on August 6 to never go back again. BTC was trading at $53,991 that day after witnessing a 22% slide in price over eight days. Glassnode mentioned, “This suggests that there has not yet been a significant impulse in trading activity and perhaps alludes to a higher dominance of single trade basis strategies and arbitrage positions within futures markets.”
Spot BTC ETFs Hit Six Month High
Things have been looking good for spot BTC exchange-traded funds, though. Cryptoquant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju took to X to mention, “U.S. spot #Bitcoin ETF demand hit a 6-month high, with netflows totaling 64,962 BTC over the last 30 days.” At the same time last month, the ETFs began rebounding to observe demand. Fairside data shows that the cumulative inflows into BTC ETFs since their launch in January have risen to $21.6 billion.
Surprisingly, the demand for these funds is being driven by retail investors, who account for 80% of the assets under management (AUM) until October 10. Institutional investors only represent the remaining 20%. These observations came from a Binance Research report on October 25.
“Non-institutional investors account for 80% of BTC ETF demand, while institutional holdings have risen by 30% since Q1,” it read. “Investment advisors saw the most significant growth, with holdings increasing by 44.2% to 71.8K BTC.” It also said that driving adoption for broker-dealers, banks, and advisors could take some time. However, those efforts will translate to significant adoption in the medium term.
Impressively, two BTC ETFs have grown to become some of the biggest launched in this decade. “BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC ranked in the top 10 assets under management (“AUM”) of 2,000 ETF launches this decade.”
