A strong start to 2024
Mar 15, 2024
Top Time-at-NBBO Rankings, New Bitcoin ETF Volume, and Continued Options Growth
Highlights & Recent Developments
- MEMX Equities exchange market share was 5.1% in January
- MEMX Equities ranked fourth or better in time-at-NBBO in 5,733 symbols
- BlackRock and Fidelity had among the most actively traded Bitcoin ETFs in January
- MEMX Options market share grew to 1.67% in January, including 4.91% in SPY options
- One million option contracts traded on MEMX on February 2
Equity Exchange Highlights
MEMX exchange market share was 5.1% in January, with diverse participation across tapes.
MEMX offers significant liquidity in thousands of securities. MEMX ranked first or second in time-at-NBBO in 2,302 symbols and ranked fourth or better in 5,733 symbols among 16 exchanges. This metric looks at the percentage of time each exchange is at the NBB or NBO during regular-hour trading for at least 100 displayed shares.
10 spot Bitcoin ETFs began trading on January 11. These ETFs trade on SEC-regulated exchanges like MEMX, and allow investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without buying it directly. The launch of Bitcoin ETFs is viewed as an important development for the expansion of digital assets because it paves the way for many brokers to begin offering these products to mainstream investors. Now the industry is focused on launching other products, including spot Ethereum ETFs and options on spot Bitcoin ETFs, both of which will require regulatory approval.
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust volume declined significantly after the initial few days of trading, while the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund are among the most active products. The original Grayscale product existed under a closed-end fund structure for a decade and accumulated more than $25 billion of assets. However, when Grayscale converted to an ETF structure, it lost billions in assets as investors moved to cheaper competitors. Trading has recently stabilized around $1 billion per day in the group of Bitcoin ETFs.
Options Exchange Highlights
In January, MEMX Options averaged 694,038 contracts per day and total market share increased to 1.67%, up from 0.54% in December. Regular electronic market share grew to 2.93% in January, up from 0.97% in December. On February 1, MEMX added hundreds of underliers E-G and traded one million contracts the following day. With the additional underliers, MEMX traded 567 symbols that accounted for 64% of options volume.
SPY was the most active symbol, with a total market share of 4.91% and regular electronic market share of 7.00%.
