Svmuu News: The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Bitcoin futures market continues to weaken, with data showing that the average daily Open Interest (OI) for March 2026 has fallen below $8 billion. In early April, it further dropped to approximately $7.2 billion, marking a new low since February 2024 and the fifth consecutive month of decline. Concurrently, the monthly trading volume in March decreased to $163 billion, nearly halving from its January 2025 peak.

Market analysis indicates that this decline primarily stems from the large-scale unwinding of "basis trades." Previously, institutions profited from the spread by buying spot ETFs and shorting CME futures, which was a core driver of CME's position growth. However, as Bitcoin prices retreated from a high of $120,000 to below $70,000, the annualized basis yield significantly compressed. The current basis yield of approximately 5% is now close to the risk-free rate of about 4.5%. After factoring in funding costs and counterparty risk, the arbitrage space has largely disappeared, prompting leveraged capital to withdraw. (The Block)