Cointelegraph Team
Cointelegraph
The open interest (OI) of major cryptocurrencies, including XRP (XRP $0.48), Solana’s (SOL $120) and Dogecoin (DOGE $0.12) have plunged a combined 51% in the last month.
“Market participants are becoming disinterested, which is reflected in the drop in open interest,” crypto trader TheCryptoMann wrote in an April 30 post on X.
OI measures the total value of all outstanding or unsettled crypto futures contracts across exchanges. It is a key metric traders and analysts use to assess market sentiment and anticipate future price movements.
Dogecoin experienced the largest decline in OI among the nine largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, falling 64% to $668.2 million since April 1, according to CoinGlass data.
Solana’s open interest is currently at $1.51 billion, which represents a 47% decrease since April 1.
Meanwhile, XRP’s OI stands at $497.67 million, marking a 44% decrease within the same time frame.
Open interest of Dogecoin has declined 64% over the past month. Source: CoinGlass
Market instability often contributes to declining OI, as traders become unsure about the market’s direction and are less willing to take bets on either side of the price action.
“Open interest close to all-time lows since FTX nuke,” crypto trader TheoTrader wrote in an April 26 post on X, noting that the current OI levels are similar to those seen around the November 2022 collapse of the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX.
The aftermath of the April 20 Bitcoin halving — which has seen Bitcoin miner revenue fall to new yearly lows — is another major catalyst of market uncertainty in the current conditions.
There are expectations of a further market correction, but it’s unclear how severe it might be, causing fewer traders to take new positions.
Related: Bitcoin sub-$60K levels in focus after daily crypto liquidations near $300M
The two leading cryptocurrencies by market capitalization have also experienced a drop in OI coinciding with price declines across the wider market.
Bitcoin (BTC $56,906) open interest has decreased by 21% to $25.58 billion, while its price has fallen 14.87% to $60,149 at the time of publication, per CoinMarketCap data.
Similarly, Ether (ETH $2,839) has seen a 22% drop in open interest to $10.02 billion, with its price declining by 16.67% and currently trading slightly above the key support level at $3,005.
Over the past 30 days, more capital has moved away from altcoins and into Bitcoin. As a result, Bitcoin dominance — BTC’s relative share of the total crypto market cap — has increased by 2.13%, reaching 54.77%, according to TradingView data.
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