Understanding crypto open interest
Crypto open interest is a metric that shows how many derivatives contracts are still open in the market. It helps show market activity, money flow, and whether a price move has strong support. When open interest rises, it often means that the trend has strong backing; when it falls, it means that positions are being closed, and the trend may be losing strength.
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How to read crypto open interest
Crypto open interest is mostly the trend metrics, which can help you with:
- Trend confirmation: If price and open interest rise together, the move may be strong. If price rises but open interest doesn't, the move may be weak
- Crowded trades: Very high open interest can mean too many traders are on one side of the market. This can raise the risk of sharp moves and liquidations
- Cross-metric data: Open interest doesn't tell the full story on its own. Check it together with volume and funding rate to better understand market conditions
- Liquidation risk: A fast rise in open interest can mean leverage is growing. This can raise the risk of a liquidation cascade if the market suddenly turns
- Support and resistance: Near key support or resistance levels, changes in open interest can show whether traders expect a breakout or a reversal
How to find open interest on TradingView
On Supercharts, go to the Indicators dialog → Fundamentals → Derivatives → Crypto open interest.
Since open interest data is collected across many exchanges, you can choose how to display it:
- Aggregated: Shows the asset's open interest across all available exchanges. Spot markets always show only aggregated data. For non-aggregated data, select a futures contract
- Non-aggregated: Shows the asset's open interest on a single exchange
Note: Non-aggregated values may be presented in base currency, quote currency, or contracts, depending on the exchange and crypto derivative.
Another way to access it is via the Crypto Coins Screener.
Since crypto exchanges typically operate 24/7, 24 hours in the screener means data from the past 24 hours, ending at the current minute. This data updates automatically.
In Fundamental Graphs, you can more easily compare fundamental and exchange data. Simply select the symbol and its available metrics.
On a coin's symbol page, find the Derivatives tab. There, you'll see this and other key data for the coin.
Symbol pages show aggregated data only.
Exchanges the metric covers
Liquidations data is available for crypto perpetual futures on the following exchanges:
- Binance
- Bitget
- Bybit
- Coinbase
- Deribit
- HTX
- Kraken
- OKX
- BitMEX (not available for aggregated data)
Crypto open interest in a nutshell
Crypto open interest is a metric for understanding how much activity is in the derivatives market and how strong a price move may be. It can help confirm trends and give more context near key support and resistance levels.
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