The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has surpassed Binance in open interest in bitcoin futures as the cryptocurrency’s value surpassed $37,000. This development indicates a broader acceptance of bitcoin among institutional investors, with CME’s strict regulatory compliance attracting heavyweights such as BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK) and Fidelity Investments.
Analysts have highlighted the implications of this shift for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has been cautious due to concerns about market depth and potential manipulation in the bitcoin market. These issues have previously stalled the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs.
In response to these concerns, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) has resubmitted an application for a spot bitcoin ETF and plans to proceed after establishing a surveillance sharing agreement with Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN). This strategy is aimed at alleviating the SEC‘s concerns, especially since Coinbase accounts for about half of the daily U.S. dollar-to-bitcoin trading volume, according to data from Kaiko Research.
The broader crypto market is also showing signs of activity, with bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and XRP (XRP) closing at $37,249, $2,078 and $0.67, respectively. The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies reached $1.42 trillion. Terminal price calculations suggest that bitcoin’s next all-time high could potentially exceed $110,000.
