Analyst: Recently, ETF buyers have tended to engage in simple bullish buying rather than pursuing arbitrage strategies

BlockBeats News, December 4th, analyst James Van Straten stated that since November 20th, CME's open interest has decreased by nearly 30,000 BTC. Meanwhile, during the same period, US spot-listed ETFs have seen a net inflow of over $3 billion. Such abnormal data indicates that US spot-listed ETFs are increasingly being used for pure directional investment rather than arbitrage strategies.

James Van Straten explained that since the ETF's launch in January, institutional investors have primarily used them to implement this strategy, namely taking long positions in the ETF and short positions in CME futures. The opposite positions allow institutional investors to hedge price risk while earning futures premiums. This is why ETF inflows and CME open interest often move in sync.