Explosive Launch of Ether Futures
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) recently unveiled its highly anticipated Ether futures, which kicked off with a bang on February 8. Over $30 million worth of contracts hit the trading floor on day one, signaling an explosive start to what could be a game-changing product for crypto trading.
A Breakdown of the First Day’s Trading
On launch day, a total of 388 contracts were traded. Notably, a whopping 303 of those contracts aimed to speculate on Ether’s price for February. There were 84 contracts set to expire in March and, perhaps unsurprisingly, only one poor lonely contract for April. For those unfamiliar, each CME Ether futures contract equals 50 Ether, with a minimum trade value starting at five contracts — a neat package worth over $450,000 at current rates.
Price Dynamics and Speculation
As traders dove headfirst into this new market, CME’s ETH futures recently traded at $1,826.5—meaning they were priced at a 1.5% premium compared to spot markets. Most of the excitement seems pinned on the idea that Ether will wrap up February around these pricing levels, making for quite the speculative cocktail.
Riding the Bullish Wave
Leading up to the launch, Ethereum experienced a significant surge in price, breaking new highs above $1,500. This uptrend was mirrored by a noticeable increase in social media engagement—from digital enthusiasts to seasoned investors, everyone was buzzing. In fact, Mythos Capital founder Ryan Adams claimed “another flippening” had taken place, with Ethereum outpacing Bitcoin in terms of on-chain settlements, according to the latest data from CoinMetrics.
The “Flippening Index”: A Closer Look
Blockchain Center’s “Flippening Index” has become an exciting tool in tracking Ethereum’s position against Bitcoin across various metrics. Notably, Ethereum has already surpassed Bitcoin in half of the key categories, such as transaction count and total transaction fees. To add to the suspense, while Ethereum’s search interest and market cap remain considerably lower than Bitcoin’s, its active addresses sit at a solid 53%, and trade volume is riding high at 74%. Impressively, the Flippening Index has climbed to an all-time high of 72.4%—who knew numbers could be so juicy?
