Blockchain research firm CryptoCompare said trading volumes of crypto-based derivative products more than doubled in January to $2.9 trillion. That is a new all-time high, breaking the previous record of $1.43 trillion set in December, also highlighting the trading frenzy that has accompanied bitcoin’s charge to uncharted highs.
The report also points out that spot trading volumes on major cryptocurrency exchanges hit a daily record of over $122 billion on January 11, just as Bitcoin was building on a fresh rally that saw it more than quadruple. The previous all-time high for daily spot volume occurred on March 13, 2020 at $72.5 billion.
The London-based data aggregator also found that crypto spot volumes rose by 97%, compared to the previous month, coming in at $2.3 trillion. This was just enough to top the previous record of $1.9 trillion in December.
The BTC/USDT pair still represents the majority of Bitcoins traded into fiat or stablecoin at 57%, but was down from 63% the prior month. This compares with higher BTC/USD market share which commanded almost 20% of BTC volumes in January.
The largest derivatives exchange by monthly trading volume in January was Binance, which traded a total of $890 billion, up 97% compared to December figure of $451 billion. The world’s most influential crypto venue was followed by OKEx, which saw its derivatives trading volume go up 102% to $582 billion, and by Huobi, whose volume increased 86% over the same period as it traded at $499 billion. Bybit notably saw its derivatives volume surge 139% to $318 billion.
Options Volumes on CME Takes Hit
Additionally, key findings from the January review show that bulk of crypto trading happened on exchanges considered by Cryptocompare as Top-Tier, having commanded $1.7 trillion of total volumes. This figure represents 74.2% of total crypto volume and was up 110% month-over-month, the data from UK research firm showed on Tuesday.
Moreover, trading volumes at what CryptoCompare calls ‘Lower-Tier’ exchanges increased to $596 billion, which is up 68 percent on a monthly basis from December.
In terms of open interest across all derivatives products, Binance led the pack with $2.6 billion at the end of January, which is up 54% over a monthly basis. It was followed closely by OKEx’s $2.5 billion, which is higher by 36% from the month earlier.
Furthermore, Binance was the largest spot exchange by volume, leading with $459 billion (up 109% MoM). This was followed by Huobi Global trading $192 billion (up 134%), while OKEx traded $149 billion (up 113%). Rival exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitfinex followed with $117.4 billion (up 157%), $56.3 billion (up 167%) and $47.8 billion (up 189%), respectively.
Bucking the overall uptrend, trading of options contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which focuses on institutional investors, decreased 43% in January with only 1,700 contracts traded within the month.
BTC futures, however, set a new record last month at roughly 285,000 contracts, while total CME’s crypto derivatives volumes also increased by 108% to $50.1 billion.
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