FTX Market Share in Bitcoin Futures Nearly Doubled Since June

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has overtaken competitors to become the second-largest exchange in the bitcoin futures market, behind only Binance, according to a report by Arcane Research.

• From the end of June through now, FTX’s market share has grown from 9% to 16%.
• FTX was founded by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, 29, in 2019. The exchange announced recently that its $900 million Series B funding round included more than 60 investors, including Paradigm, Ribbit Capital and Sequoia, and valued the company at $18 billion.
• “The exchange has long been the second-largest futures market in the broad crypto sector, but their bitcoin futures have lagged behind OKEx, CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) and Bybit up until recently,” the report said.
• Bybit’s bitcoin perpetual swap was the dominating futures instrument in April at around the time the cryptocurrency hit its $64,000 peak, according to the report.
• “Paying attention to the Bybit OI (open interest) could be a viable indicator to gauge whether the sentiment is turning over exuberant in the future,” Arcane’s report said.
• Global open interest recently surpassed $15 billion for the first time since May. Despite that climb, the market, in general, seems less over-leveraged given how the bitcoin denominated open interest sits at 330,000 BTC currently, according to the report.
• “Both prior to the May 19th crash and the July 26th short squeeze, the bitcoin-denominated open interest sat at a far more substantial 400,000 BTC," Arcane said.
• "This indicator suggests that the market is currently careful with leverage.”

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