GlossaryOpen interest
Open interest
Open interest is the total of all open futures positions in a coin. Each position counts once, that is, one side. The pane below the chart shows whether capital is flowing into the market or leaving it, which helps you put a price move in context.
How to read it
- Open interest rises with the price: new positions are carrying the move, often new longs.
- Open interest rises, the price falls: new shorts are building, or longs are buying into the decline. Both raise the potential for a violent countermove.
- Open interest falls with the price: longs are closing or being liquidated.
- Open interest falls, the price rises: shorts are covering, often a short squeeze without new capital.
- A sharp drop with a large candle is often a reduction in leverage. Read it together with the Liquidations pane.
Good to know
- The pane header says how many exchanges are counting (“Aggregated · 5 exchanges”). If an exchange is currently missing a new value, it appears in the header with “last value”.
- If the values are coarser than your candles, the header gives the resolution, for example “Resolution 5 min”. The pane then moves in steps.
- If the visible range reaches further back than the values, the header says “History from …”.
- Open interest is available only for symbols traded as perpetuals.