The second quarter of 2021 saw record participation in Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) regulated Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) futures. According to an email sent to CoinDesk, the number of large open interest holders, or entities holding at least 25 Bitcoin futures contracts, averaged a record 107 in the quarter. Similarly, Ether’s large open interest holders averaged 62. CME noted that Bitcoin futures institutional interest continued to increase throughout the quarter as investors sought regulated venues/products to hedge rising market volatility and manage risk and exposure.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking the detention of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried before his criminal trial. Bankman-Fried appeared in federal court Wednesday after the DOJ alleged he shared documents with the New York Times to try and discredit former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said that no set of release conditions can secure the safety of the community and that it appears to be undisputed the defendant provided the documents quoted [in the New York Times] … to discredit [Ellison].
Despite a very public pivot to artificial intelligence, Meta (META) has not given up on the metaverse. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the company earnings call Wednesday evening that Our investments in AI continue and that We remain fully committed to the Metaverse vision as well. However, the focus on the metaverse has not been profitable for the social media giant – Meta’s Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) unit, which is responsible for metaverse, lost $13.7 billion on revenue of $2.2 billion in 2022.