Home
News
The multinational investment bank and financial services of JPMorgan recently showed that institutional investors are beginning to veer away from bitcoin (BTC) futures as they are now favoring Ether (ETH) derivatives. That said, Ether futures are as of late being traded at a premium according to reports as investors are making the switch from everything BTC-related.
From bitcoin to ether
JPMorgan analysts said on Wednesday that Bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) are being traded at a discounted price in comparison to spot BTC prices during September. This resulted in the growth of popularity of Ethereum-based products as investors switched over to the second-largest cryptocurrency. Further, these financial pundits claim that there’s a strong divergence in demand adding that what’s happening right now is a setback for bitcoin and a reflection of weak demand by institutional investors that tend to utilize regulated CME futures contracts to gain exposure to bitcoin.
With that in mind, BTC futures are usually being traded at a premium over the spot markets provided that the demand is high. According to the JPM analysts, this is due to the steep storage costs alongside some pretty inviting yields for passive cryptocurrency investing.
If the CME data is anything to go by, the 21-day average ether futures premium has surged to one percent over ether prices on the spot markets. JPM analysts also commented on this, stating that it points to much healthier demand for Ethereum vs. Bitcoin by institutional investors.
JPMorgan’s CEO on bitcoin
Meanwhile, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon continues to criticize bitcoin. Dimon recently sat down with Times of India as he said that if one borrows money to buy bitcoin, that person’s a fool. There’s even a part in the interview where he said that he doesn’t really care about bitcoin and went on to describe just how minute his knowledge about the king coin.
The JPMorgan CEO said that he doesn’t even know if bitcoin’s an asset, a foreign exchange, or a currency. Further, Dimon suggested that regulation will constrain bitcoin, though to whether it eliminates it, he said that he has no idea and he doesn’t personally care since he’s not a buyer of bitcoin.
With a background in journalism, Ritika Sharma has worked with many reputed media firms focusing on general news such as politics and crime. She joined The Coin Republic as a reporter for crypto, and found a great passion for cryptocurrency, Web3, NFTs and other digital assets. She spends a lot of time researching and delving deeper into these concepts around the clock, and is a strong advocate for women in STEM.
