The second quarter of 2021 saw record participation in Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) regulated Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) futures. The number of large open interest holders, or entities holding at least 25 Bitcoin futures contracts, averaged a record 107 in the quarter, according to CME. Ether’s large open interest holders averaged 62 during the same period. 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 exchange said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking the detention of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried before his criminal trial, alleging he has tried multiple times to tamper with witnesses. Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said in court, It is the government’s view that no set of release conditions can secure the safety of the community… it appears to be undisputed the defendant provided the documents quoted [in the New York Times]… to discredit [Ellison].
Meta (META) has not given up on its metaverse vision despite a pivot to artificial intelligence. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the company earnings call, “We remain fully committed to the Metaverse vision as well… We’ve been working on both of these two major priorities for many years in parallel now, and in many ways the two areas are overlapping and complementary.” 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.