The open interest on the CME Bitcoin futures exchange will be expiring in just a few hours. Most are expecting it to be a catalyst for a major market move.

Bitcoin futures are set to expire shortly, which in turn is expected to cause further volatility. Some are anticipating that shorters will be shaken out, but it’s currently unclear how the market will be impacted.

A Possible Bitcoin Short Squeeze

The Bitcoin market has been exceptionally bearish in the past week with Bitcoin (BTC) now trading for $8,500 at the time of publishing. Shorts are piling up on Binance, making up 65% of the order book. However, traders are split. Remarkably, Bitfinex is reporting 90% longs on its exchange in sharp contrast to the shorters on Binance. One of these camps will eventually be proven wrong.

The fact that CME Bitcoin futures are expiring in just a few hours has prompted some to say that we could soon see a ‘short squeeze.’ Shorters might get liquidated as Bitcoin pushes upward once the CME futures expire. All-in-all, we can likely expect some ‘shenanigans‘ as one user puts it on Twitter.

The CME futures are set to expire at 16:00 UTC and always expire on the last trading Friday of the month.

CME Continues to Dominate Markets