In December, a total of 1,464 bitcoin options contracts were traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, showing volume went up 20.6% compared to November. This is the highest level seen since May when crypto prices were at an all-time high and appeared amid a crypto market meltdown.
According to CryptoCompare’s December 2021 Exchange Review report, a daily intra-month high of 313 were traded on December 31, a 152% increase from the daily maximum in November. Futures volumes, in contrast, plunged 64.8% to $25.5 billion, their lowest level last year.
CryptoCompare’s report details that last month the price of Bitcoin closed at $46,187 after dropping over 18.9% that month, while Ethereum closed at $3,676 after dropping over 20.5% over the same period.
The crypto market downturn saw spot trading volumes decrease to $2.6 trillion over that month, with a daily maximum of $174 billion being traded on December 4. Prices dropped amid inflation worries brought on by a consumer price report in the U.S. showing 6.8% annual inflation, the highest level seen since 1982.
While trading volumes drop, Top-Tier exchanges, rated according to CryptoCompare’s Exchange Benchmark methodology, have seen their trading volume drop 17.9% to $2.1 trillion, while lower-tier exchanges saw their volumes rise 117.8% to $518 billion. As a result, Top-Tier exchanges now account for 80% of the total volume, down from 92.1% in November.
The report adds that bitcoin trading into leading stablecoin USDT increase by 5% in December to 3.4 million BTC. Trading into the U.S. dollar increased to 1 million bitcoin, while into the Japanese yen it move up to 249,000 BTC, and into EUR p to 220,000 BTC.
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