Traders shifted their attention from Bitcoin to Ethereum trading

Traders switched their attention from Bitcoin to Ethereum trading

According to experts, Ethereum's lag in terms of growth dynamics behind Bitcoin could soon shrink dramatically

Key metrics of the market of derivative instruments on cryptocurrency assets indicate the growing interest of speculators in Ethereum (ETH), writes Coindesk.

According to Coindesk, the price of Ethereum significantly lags behind Bitcoin (BTC) in terms of growth dynamics, which is especially noticeable in large periods: over the year, ETH has grown by 89%, while the first cryptocurrency showed growth of 163%.

However, Coindesk writes, this gap could soon narrow considerably. According to the analytical service Velo Data, over the past five days, Open Interest (Open Interest) in Ethereum futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) rose by 30% to $711 million, ahead of bitcoin (19%).

In traditional trading, Open Interest refers to the total number of buy orders available when the market opens. In futures and options trading, Open Interest is the total number of contracts outstanding at a given point in time. This includes futures contracts that have not yet been exercised, have not yet expired, or have not been settled by delivery of the underlying assets.

Open interest serves as a metric for assessing the level of involvement of market participants in a particular futures contract. An active growth in open interest combined with an increase in the price of the asset may indicate an active upward movement.

"It may be too early to tell, but it appears that market participants are already beginning to speculate on the news of Ethereum-ETF approval," Reflexivity Research said in a report.

In mid-November, BlackRock, the world's largest investment company, filed with the regulator of the U.S. state of Delaware and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to float a spot ETF on Ethereum (ETH).

Right now, only futures ETFs on Ethereum exist in the market. It is the spot ETF that gives investors access to the asset itself, whereas investing in a futures ETF is effectively just a bet on the later price of the asset without any market impact.

On November 10, 2023, CME surpassed Binance for the first time in terms of open interest in bitcoin futures and ranked first among all trading venues in this metric. On Dec. 1, open interest in bitcoin futures trading on CME totaled $4.17 billion, a record high and also the highest among all trading venues.