The activity of BTC futures on the Zhishang Exchange has dropped to a 14 month low, or institutional funds may withdraw due to the failure of basis trading Odaily Planet Daily News: The Bitcoin futures market on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) continues to weaken, with data showing that the daily open interest (OI) in March 2026 has dropped below $8 billion, and further dropped to about $7.2 billion in early April, hitting a new low since February 2024, and has been declining for the fifth consecutive month. At the same time, the monthly trading volume in March fell to $163 billion, almost halving the peak in January 2025. Market analysis points out that this round of decline is mainly due to the large-scale liquidation of "basis trade". Previously, institutions obtained spread returns by buying spot ETFs and shorting CME futures, which was the core driving force for CME's position growth. However, as Bitcoin prices fell from a high of $120000 to below $70000, annualized basis returns were significantly compressed. The current basis yield of about 5% has approached the risk-free interest rate level of about 4.5%. After adding the cost of funds and counterparty risk, the arbitrage space has basically disappeared, prompting leveraged funds to withdraw. （The Block）