Bitcoin (BTC) futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) briefly broke $10,000 on Friday, June 21, according to data from trading analytics platform TradingView.

CME bitcoin futures 24-hour chart. Source: TradingView

BTC futures reached a new high for 2019 of around $10,050, breaking $10,000 for the first time since early March 2018, when bitcoin was trading above $11,000 per coin.

The new 2019 record has grown in line with the new highs of CME bitcoin futures total open interest (OI) that has reportedly reached around $273 million after CME reported new all-time high of 5,311 contracts totalling $256 million earlier this week. At the time, CME stressed that the OI spike came amid increased popularity from institutional investors.

Open interest rate on CME bitcoin futures. Source: ZeroHedge

A Bitcoin futures contract is an agreement to purchase or sell bitcoin on a specific future date at a specific price. CME Group became the second global exchange to list bitcoin futures for trading back in December 2017, a week after the launch of BTC futures by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). In March 2019, CBOE announced that they will not add a new BTC futures market, citing re-evaluation of its approach to trading digital assets.

Meanwhile, CME has seen notable growth in bitcoin futures trading on its platform recently, having recorded a new all-time high in the number of open contracts in early June. Earlier in May, CME reported that it was about to record the biggest trading month for BTC futures trading.

While BTC futures trading on CME surpassed the $10,000 mark, bitcoin’s price has been firmly approaching the same threshold recently. At press time, bitcoin is trading at $9,862, slightly down from the intraday high of $9,893.