CME Group, the Chicago-based exchange operator, said its bitcoin futures contracts grew in popularity last quarter, with the number of open contracts up 61 percent from a year earlier because of growing demand from institutional investors.
Open interest, or the number of outstanding positions, rose to 4,629 contracts, up from 2,873 in the third quarter of 2018, CME said Monday in a statement. And despite the quarter’s 25 percent drop in bitcoin price, according to CoinDesk, the open interest in the CME’s contracts was down just 1 percent from second-quarter levels.