What the COT report is
The Commitments of Traders (COT) report is a weekly breakdown, published by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), of who holds the open interest in each US-regulated futures market. Large traders report their positions to the CFTC every day; once a week the CFTC adds them up by type of trader and publishes the totals (see also the glossary entry).
For financial futures, which include CME Bitcoin and Ether futures, the version to read is Traders in Financial Futures (TFF). Our CME COT report pages use its futures-only figures.
The weekly schedule
- Tuesday: positions are taken as of the close of trading.
- Friday, 3:30 pm US Eastern: the CFTC publishes that Tuesday's report.
- Holidays: after a US federal holiday the release moves a day or more later. The CFTC can also stop publishing during a US government shutdown and catch up afterwards.
So the newest numbers are always three days old when they appear, and up to ten days old by the following Friday.
The trader categories
TFF puts each large trader into one group by its main line of business, not by the reason for a given trade:
- Leveraged funds: hedge funds, CTAs and other money managers.
- Asset managers: pension funds, endowments, insurers and institutional fund managers.
- Dealers: banks and other sell-side intermediaries.
- Other reportables: large traders that fit none of the groups above.
- Small traders: positions below the CFTC's reporting level.
For each group the report gives long and short contracts. Net position = long − short: positive is net long, negative is net short. Small traders are the remainder of the open interest after the reportable traders are counted.
Why leveraged funds are often net short
Leveraged funds have been net short CME Bitcoin futures for most of the contract's history, and that is often read as hedge funds betting on a fall. Much of it is the opposite of a directional bet. CME futures usually trade above spot (the basis). A fund can buy spot bitcoin or a spot ETF, sell the same amount of CME futures and earn that premium as the future converges to spot at expiry: the cash-and-carry trade. The long leg sits outside the futures market, so the COT report only shows the short.
That is why a growing leveraged-fund short often comes with ETF inflows and a wide basis, and a shrinking short with the basis narrowing as funds unwind. Asset managers are usually on the other side, net long, often through funds that hold futures instead of spot.
Contract sizes: from contracts to coins
- CME Bitcoin futures: 5 BTC per contract. A net position of −1,000 contracts is 5,000 BTC net short.
- CME Ether futures: 50 ETH per contract. A net position of −1,000 contracts is 50,000 ETH net short.
- Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether futures: 0.1 BTC or ETH per contract. The CFTC reports them as separate markets, and our COT pages do not include them.
Our pages show contracts as the CFTC reports them, with the coin equivalent next to them.
Lag and limits
- Delay. A Tuesday snapshot published on Friday. Fast moves in between do not show until the next report.
- One venue. Only US-regulated futures. Offshore perpetual futures, where most crypto leverage trades, are on our open interest and long/short ratio pages.
- Futures only. Options on CME futures are left out of the futures-only figures.
- Groups, not intent. A trader's group comes from its business, and one position can be a hedge, an arbitrage leg or a bet. The report cannot tell them apart.
- Small market. A few large traders can move a group's net position by thousands of contracts in one week, for example around a contract roll.
- It describes positions, not where the price goes next. Not financial advice.
Checked against the CFTC and CME documentation on 19 October 2026: CFTC: Traders in Financial Futures explanatory notes · CFTC: COT release schedule · CME Group: Bitcoin futures contract specs. Not financial advice.