crypto-futures
What Is Open Interest in Crypto Futures?
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Time
- 1 min
On this page
Open interest is the total number of derivative contracts — perpetuals or futures — that are currently open: entered but not yet closed or settled. It's a measure of how much money is actively committed to a market right now.
How open interest changes
Every contract has a buyer (long) and a seller (short), and open interest counts those open pairs. A single trade can move it three ways:
- Up — two traders both open new positions → a new contract exists.
- Down — two traders both close → a contract disappears.
- Flat — one opens while the other closes → the contract just changes hands.
That's the key difference from volume.
Open interest vs. volume
- Volume = how many contracts traded during a period. It resets each period and measures activity.
- Open interest = how many contracts are open right now. It carries over and measures commitment.
You can have huge volume with flat open interest (traders churning the same positions) or modest volume with rising open interest (steady new money arriving).
Reading open interest with price
Open interest is only meaningful alongside price direction:
- Price up + OI up — new longs backing the move: a strong, well-supported trend.
- Price up + OI down — shorts covering: a rally on thinning conviction.
- Price down + OI up — new shorts: genuine bearish pressure.
- Price down + OI down — longs unwinding/liquidating: a move running out of fuel.
Why it matters
Rising open interest means more leverage in the system — more positions that can be forced to close. When open interest is high and one-sided, a sharp move can trigger a cascade of liquidations, accelerating the move. It's a gauge of both conviction and fragility.
New to the contracts open interest measures? Start with Perpetual futures explained.
Ready to put this into practice?
Pick up where the theory ends — our hands-on, screenshot-by-screenshot Bybit guides are tested on real accounts.
Frequently asked questions
Related guides
What Is the Funding Rate in Crypto Futures?
Funding rates explained: what they are, why perpetual futures use them, when you pay vs receive, and how to factor funding into a trade.
Perpetual Futures Explained: How Crypto Perps Work
What perpetual futures (perps) are, how they differ from spot and dated futures, and how leverage, funding and the mark price keep them tracking the market.
Written & tested by
The TradeCookbook team tests crypto exchanges and forex brokers on real, funded accounts and documents each step with original, dated screenshots. Every guide is fact-checked against primary sources and updated as platforms change.
- Hands-on testing on real, funded accounts
- Original, dated screenshots — never stock imagery
- Claims fact-checked against primary sources