Independent Institutional Research

Independent Institutional Research

Est. 2021

Institutional Asset Journal

Where Institutional Capital Meets Markets

7 Institutions Hold a Reportable Bitcoin Long in April

The CFTC counted 7 asset managers holding a reportable long in CME bitcoin futures on 21 April 2026 against 173 in E-mini S&P 500 futures. Participation is the constraint.

7 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 4,696,151 491 169
E-mini S&P 500 1,963,317 455 173
10-year Treasury note 5,213,875 418 137
Euro FX 790,622 313 117
Treasury bond 1,804,347 243 90
Nasdaq-100 mini 267,620 287 80
VIX futures 338,391 175 20
Bitcoin 24,994 124 7
Week ending 21 April 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.

+5,35819 March 202421 April 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.