Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin Futures Volumes Top $150 Million at Kraken Exchange

It's not just bitcoin futures products that are becoming popular with investors, at least according to one U.K.-based crypto derivatives provider.

Crypto Facilities, a subsidiary of the San Francisco-based exchange Kraken that provides bitcoin and ether reference data for CME Group and has offered its own derivatives products for years, has seen trading volume in its altcoin futures markets jump dramatically in recent weeks - in particular, its litecoin and bitcoin cash futures contracts, said head of indices and pricing products Sui Chung.

He told CoinDesk that the company had seen a dedicated following for each coin since litecoin was listed in June 2018 and bitcoin cash two months later, "But relative to bitcoin and ether were pretty small in terms of volume."

"We began to onboard Kraken users [and] that's basically given us better exposure to the communities around litecoin and bitcoin cash, and I think what we're seeing is those communities have a pretty strong interest in trading derivatives for litecoin and bitcoin cash, respectively," Chung said.

Prior to the acquisition, Crypto Facilities saw its litecoin futures contracts average around $15 million in notional volume each month, while its bitcoin cash contracts saw roughly $10 million per month.

By contrast, last month, the litecoin product saw $100 million notional volume, while bitcoin cash was just under $50 million, Chung said.

Speaking to litecoin and bitcoin cash specifically, Chung believes that there was some pent-up demand for such regulated contracts.

The litecoin and bitcoin cash communities "Have an appetite for trading derivatives," he said.

In particular, the demand for XRP futures has remained relatively stable, despite the outpouring of support for litecoin and bitcoin cash, Chung said.

XRP futures' volume is not growing as quickly as litecoin and bitcoin cash futures.