Open interest, which means the sum of open positions in the Bitcoin derivatives market, grew rapidly during the upward phase of this cycle. However, after the market peak in October 2025 and in the days following the sharp sell-off on October 10, this growth gave way to a significant contraction.
From Concentrating Leverage to Sustainable Retracement
More leverage was used in derivative markets in this cycle compared to previous cycles. In Binance, one of the cryptocurrency exchanges with the world’s highest transaction volume, the amount of open position in Bitcoin reached 94,300 BTC, right after the November 2021 peak. At the last peak in October 2025, this amount increased to 120,000 BTC on Binance. While the total open interest on all exchanges reached 381,000 BTC at the peak of the cycle, this level was recorded as 221,000 BTC in April 2024.
Gradual and Widespread Closures in Markets
The data reveals how heavily leveraged the market is, but this magnifies the downside movements as well as the upside. Since the peak in October, the amount of open interest has decreased almost every month.
Between October 6 and October 11, open positions on Binance dropped by 20.8 percent. In the same period, this decline reached up to 37 percent in Bybit and Gate.io exchanges.
This trend was not limited to a fluctuation of just a few days or weeks. There has been an additional decrease of 39.3 percent in open positions on Binance recently. While this rate reached 33 percent in Bybit, a decrease of 24 percent was recorded in the BitMEX exchange.
Since Binance’s share in total open positions is large, it is considered that this rapid contraction in the stock market affects the general market structure. However, it is emphasized that the decrease in open positions is not limited to a single platform, but is a general and systematic process.
Changing Market Dynamics and Investor Behavior
The decline in open interest appears to point to a number of possibilities. Traders close their positions, reduce leverage, or are liquidated during the volatility.
This decrease over a long period of time indicates that investors in the market tend to avoid risk and prefer to reduce existing positions instead of taking new speculative positions.
In such an environment, it becomes difficult for prices to rise rapidly based on momentum. The general decrease in leveraged transactions in the derivative market also weakens the possibility of sharp upward movements in the near term.
The latest chart reveals that a prolonged deleveraging process is gaining ground in the Bitcoin derivatives market. It is known that such a period, as in the past, paves the way for the establishment of market balance and the formation of a new main direction.
