Trading Firm Sees Bullish Signs as Bitcoin Open Interest Surges to Highest Level Since FTX Crash

Open interest in bitcoin (BTC) across crypto derivatives exchanges has surged to $10 billion, a five-month high after leverage subsided in the wake of FTX's collapse in November, according to data from Coinalyze.

A rise in open interest, which is a metric that assesses the value of all unsettled derivatives positions, alongside an increase in price is often used to confirm the legitimacy of a move. At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading at around $30,000 after it surged to a 10-month high of $30,540 on Tuesday.

Zahreddine Touag, head of trading at Woorton, a crypto trading firm and liquidity provider, said that bitcoin broke out in a "global risk-on environment," with the Nasdaq also rising by 10% in the last 30 days.

"We think this move is driven by technicals, BTC broke a major resistance at $28.5k and rebounded on its 2023 bullish trendline," Touag said.

"We noticed futures open interest has been moving up vertically which shows more participation from crypto traders and a bullish market sentiment," he added.

"For now, we do not see signs of extreme exuberance; indeed, the fear and greed index is at 61, funding rates are still negative on many exchanges for BTC while short-sellers did not capitulate yet. We will monitor these metrics to predict a potential trend reversal."

It's worth noting that an increase in open interest means that whilst short-sellers have added to their shorts in this region, traders betting on long trades are doing so with leverage that may unwind if price begins to reverse.

A total of $98 million in crypto derivatives positions have been liquidated in the past 24 hours as bitcoin momentarily slipped below $30,000, according to CoinGlass.

UPDATE (April 10, 2023, 20:03 UTC): Updates quote attribution.