Total open interest on BTC futures is declining, signaling a quiet deleveraging across CME, Binance, and offshore venues, rather than outright panic.
Summary
- The total number of BTC futures OI is almost 647,700 BTC (~$59 billion) and is down about 1.9% in 24 hours, indicating a controlled reduction in leverage.
- CME and Binance together control almost 40% of the exposure to BTC futures, anchoring two different leverage regimes: regulated futures and offshore offenders.
- Most major oil platforms are showing small OI declines, while outliers like MEXC are increasing risk, indicating selective speculation in a broader trend of risk reduction.
Total open interest on BTC futures remains high, with a measured reduction in debt burden rather than disorderly unwinding.
Total Bitcoin Futures Open Interest Rises
The total open interest for BTC (BTC) futures is almost 647,700 BTC, or approximately $59 billion in notional value, according to data provided from CoinGlass. Total open interest is down about 0.4% in the past hour and about 1.9% in the past 24 hours, indicating a modest contraction in outstanding positions.
Exchange concentration
The open interest is highly concentrated in a few locations. CME owns about 124,900 BTC in open interest (about $11.4 billion), almost 19% of the total, while Binance owns about 122,100 BTC (about $11.1 billion), also almost 19% of the market. Bybit, OKX, HTX, Gate, MEXC and other exchanges collectively account for the remaining share, each in the low to mid single digits in market share and in the low to mid billions in theoretical terms.
Short-term changes
Over the past 24 hours, most major venues have recorded small declines in open interest on BTC futures. CME, Binance, HTX and Deribit each show modest declines, consistent with broad, low-intensity position reductions rather than sharp liquidations. MEXC is showing open interest increases of roughly 4.7% over 24 hours and almost 5% over four hours, while exchanges like Kraken and dYdX are showing record double-digit percentage declines in open interest over the same period.
Interpreting open interest
Open interest measures the total number of futures contracts outstanding and reflects the amount of capital tied up in BTC derivatives at any point in time. Rising open interest with rising prices generally corresponds to new positions entering the market, while falling open interest with relatively stable prices corresponds to closing positions. Current readings indicate a high, but somewhat reduced, level of exposure to BTC futures on the major exchanges, with the risk allocation split between regulated futures on CME and offshore perpetual markets on platforms such as Binance, Bybit and OKX.
