Interest in Bitcoin futures has risen over the last few bays as Bitcoin BTC tests the $57,000 level.
Earlier today, Bitcoin was trading at $57,053 and was up by 18% in a week and 27% in a month. Bitcoin is now amongst the best performing crypto assets and has been labelled as today’s best performer.
Bitcoin also outperformed a number of altcoins in the top 100 by market cap today, with the exception of the meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB) and a few other smaller tokens.
The latest gains today come as interest in Bitcoin trading spiked among futures traders. According to crypto analytics firm Glassnode, BTC futures open interest – a measure of the value of futures contracts that are open at any given time – has risen 45% since a low point in September, to $17.6 billion.
Glassnode did however note that it is still well below the interest from the last time Bitcoin traded at 56,000 in May. Back then, open interest stood at $22.5 billion which is almost $5 billion higher than it does today.
According to data from Binance, the BTC/USDT perpetual futures long/short ratio has surged over the weekend, currently sitting at 1.22. The figure means that more traders are long so betting on higher prices.
Before the weekend, those trading futures on Binance were significantly more bullish than those on competing exchange OKEx, which saw a more bearish long/short ratio today.
Meanwhile, data from Chainalysis showed that Bitcoin inflows to exchanges have reached their lowest level since September 25 (in US dollar terms). The value of Bitcoin going into exchanges is down significantly from Thursday last week, when more than $3.55 billion worth of Bitcoin were put into exchanges.
Low bitcoin inflows to exchanges are generally seen as a bullish sign, as traders take this to mean that more bitcoin users are holding their coins in cold storage rather than looking to sell.
Philip Gradwell, Chief Economist at Chainalysis, wrote in a pre-weekend market intel report that the rising prices are a result of “tight supply” in the Bitcoin market.
Investors and traders have used the last three-months to stock up on Bitcoin, due to the low prices. Chainalysis wrote, while adding that demand stemming from “a clearer-eyed view on regulation and rising concerns over fiat inflation” is also contributing to the demand side.
