 Bitcoin ETF demand hits 6-month high while futures volumes remain ‘subdued’ 
2024-10-26

Demand for spot Bitcoin BTCUSD exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has reached its highest point since the Bitcoin halving in April. Meanwhile interest among futures traders seems to be waning, according to recent data.
“The volumes traded across all futures contracts ($35 billion per day) remain somewhat subdued, especially compared to the elevated volumes when the market peaked at the all-time high in March,” crypto analysis firm Glassnode explained in an Oct. 23 market report.
A ‘significant impulse’ among futures traders is missing
The volume of futures contracts — an agreement between a buyer and a seller to sell Bitcoin in the future — is clocking daily figures approximately 50% of what it was following Bitcoin reaching its all-time high of $73,679 in March, when it exceeded $80 billion daily. 
The last time the volume approached $80 billion was at the beginning of August when Bitcoin’s price dropped 22% over 8 days, reaching $53,991 on Aug. 6.
Glassnode explained that “there has not yet been a significant impulse in trading activity and perhaps alludes to a higher dominance of single trade basis strategies and arbitrage positions within futures markets.”
Spot Bitcoin ETF soars, fueled by retail investors
Meanwhile, in an Oct. 25 X post, Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant, highlighted the spot Bitcoin ETF’s 30-day change momentum indicator, noting that demand for the spot Bitcoin ETF has “reached a 6-month high.”
Ju pointed out that netflows totaled 65,962 BTC over the last 30 days.
Since the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January, total cumulative inflows have reached $21.6 billion, according to Farside data.
On Oct. 25, crypto exchange Binance shared research suggesting that retail investors are responsible for most of the demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs.
In the report on crypto ETFs, Binance analysts shared that non-institutional investors accounted for nearly 80% of the total assets under management (AUM) in spot BTC ETFs as of Oct. 10. 
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.