Open interest in bitcoin (BTC-USD) futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (NASDAQ:CME) jumped to record highs on Friday as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved futures-based exchange-traded funds based on the world's most popular cryptocurrency (based on market cap). The amount of money locked into bitcoin futures contracts stood at $3.64B on Friday, a more than two-fold rise for the month, CoinDesk reports, citing data from bybt. The prior record high was $3.26B reached in February. Open interest is the dollar value of futures contracts traded but not liquidated with an offsetting position. CoinDesk said Glassnode data shows the total number outstanding contracts on the CME has increased by 60% to 56,410. Bitcoin (BTC-USD) recently traded at $60.8K, relatively stable over the past 24 hours. On Friday, bitcoin (BTC-USD) retook $60K on news that the SEC would allow the first U.S. bitcoin futures ETF to proceed.
