FundingVest
No Cooldown in the Selloff: Leverage Shifts to Mid-Sized Exchanges
As BTC extends its decline, there is no excessive cooling on the Open Interest side. The overall picture points to a controlled, cautious descent. According to the latest data, the 30D Open Interest change stands as follows: OKX +17%, Bybit +14%, Gate.io +13%, Binance -3%, Deribit -17%. On OKX, Bybit and Gate.io, fresh leverage has been building over the past 30 days. Binance is flat to slightly negative, while Deribit is clearly negative. Binance is one of the largest exchanges by volume and depth. If the increase reflected leverage building across the entire market, it would show up on Binance as well. Binance staying flat to slightly negative suggests the rise is coming mainly from mid-sized exchanges. The contraction on Deribit, meanwhile, should not be read as extremely negative on its own. A significant part of the drop is linked to position reductions stemming from expiry settlements. When BTC was at $87K, the 30D Open Interest change lost momentum, which made the decline unavoidable. The weakening of fresh position inflows supporting the rally exhausted buying strength and pushed the market back. The decline in Bitcoin is forcing long positions to close. Meanwhile, leverage is shifting to mid-sized exchanges: position growth continues there, while Binance remains flat to slightly negative. The 30D Open Interest change is likely to keep shrinking.