Independent Institutional Research

Independent Institutional Research

Est. 2021

Institutional Asset Journal

Where Institutional Capital Meets Markets

6 Institutions Hold a Reportable Bitcoin Long

The CFTC counted 6 asset managers holding a reportable long in CME bitcoin futures on 21 July 2026 against 173 in E-mini S&P 500 futures. Participation is the constraint.

6 institutions. Asset managers holding a reportable long in CME bitcoin futures.

Alongside the contract counts the CFTC publishes something more informative: how many distinct entities hold a reportable position. It is a headcount of institutional participation on one consistent definition across every major financial future in the United States.

Contract Open interest Reporting traders Asset managers long
2-year Treasury note 4,335,075 499 162
E-mini S&P 500 1,939,493 434 173
10-year Treasury note 5,272,703 432 132
Euro FX 800,061 326 109
Treasury bond 1,842,498 237 87
Nasdaq-100 mini 286,903 277 73
VIX futures 396,485 192 20
Bitcoin 20,527 123 6
Week ending 21 July 2026. Open interest is not comparable across contracts because multipliers differ; the trader counts are.

Asset managers’ net position in CME bitcoin futures

Net long minus short, in contracts, weekly. The level the headcount above is holding.

+2,72718 June 202421 July 2026

Source: CFTC Commitments of Traders, Traders in Financial Futures, futures only. Prices are Coinbase daily closes. Computed by Institutional Asset Journal.

What the report cannot tell you

CME is one venue. Spot exchange traded products, offshore perpetual futures and over the counter forwards all sit outside this release, and an institution can hold a large position in any of them without appearing here. What the report measures is the part of institutional exposure that has to be declared to a United States regulator: a floor, not a total.

How this was measured

  • Figures are taken from the CFTC’s Commitments of Traders release, Traders in Financial Futures, futures only. That report covers positions held at the close on a Tuesday and is published the following Friday at 15:30 Eastern, so every reading here is three days old on the day it appears. Net positions exclude spread holdings, which the CFTC reports separately. Notional values apply the CME contract multiplier and the Coinbase daily close on the report date. Restatements by the CFTC are carried through rather than footnoted.