Bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) traded at a premium price of as high as $47,040 on January 2, which was up $1,600 from its spot market price of nearly $45,500 at the time.
Data from TradingView shows that the CME Bitcoin Futures price reached $47,040 on the second day of the new year at 14:45 UTC.
With the spike, several crypto traders and analysts have questioned if the price surge was solely for the CME Bitcoin futures market or if it was a signal for a potential price rally.
While the Bitcoin futures contract price tends to be higher than its spot price, the premium of $1,600 in price is record-breaking, as it dropped to nearly $530 on December 6 despite a massive surge in the Bitcoin market price during that time.
Between January and November 2023, the CME Bitcoin futures contract had a very low premium rate, which rarely exceeded $350 on daily closes.
Alongside CME, data from leading crypto exchanges – including Binance, ByBit, OKX, and others – also showed the highest premium rates of the past two years in Bitcoin futures.
The optimism around the Bitcoin price rally is more fueled by the recent spike that sent BTC above $45,000 on New Year’s Day.
The crypto community is anticipating a massive surge in the Bitcoin price due to factors such as the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, Fed rates, as well as upcoming Bitcoin halving.Â
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