Open Interest in Binance's BNB Token Futures Jumps to 5-Month High

Open interest, or the number of unsettled and active futures contracts tied to Binance's BNB token, continues to rise, according to data tracked by Coinglass.

Total open interest rose to 1.57 million BNB ($360 million) on Monday, the highest since Jan. 1. The tally has increased by over 8% in the past 24 hours and nearly 27% in one week.

BNB's going market rate fell to $221 early Monday, nearly matching the low registered on Dec. 12, per CoinDesk data. Prices have declined by over 25% since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Binance on June 5.

Read more: Binance's BNB Token Saw Millions in Sell Orders Right Before SEC Lawsuits

An increase in open interest alongside a price decrease suggests an influx of short positions or bearish bets and is said to confirm a downtrend.

The negative funding rates in the perpetual futures market also indicate a bias for bearish positioning. Funding rates refer to the cost of holding bullish long or bearish short positioning in the market. Negative rates indicate that bearish shorts are willing to pay bullish longs to keep their price-negative bets open.

"BNB shorted a lot right now cause there’s a onchain liquidation around $220 on Venus Protocol which could lead to a cascade" Dubai-based crypto analyst and trader Reetika Malik. Venus Protocol is an algorithm-based money market system on the BNB Chain.

Venus protocol, perhaps in an attempt to calm market nerves, put out a tweet soon before press time, stating that the BNBChain core team will take over the BNB position on Venus if the cryptocurrency hits the liquidation threshold and ensure the cryptocurrency is not dumped into the market.