What is open interest (OI)?

The total size of all open positions in a futures contract: how much money is currently at stake on longs and shorts.

Open interest counts every open long; since every long has a short on the other side, it equals the total of open shorts as well. It is usually shown in coins or in dollars.

Rising open interest together with price means new money is opening positions; price moving while OI falls means positions are being closed or liquidated.

High open interest relative to trading volume means many leveraged positions — and more fuel for a short squeeze or a long squeeze.

On HyperScan

On every coin page HyperScan shows what share of open interest belongs to whales and how they are split between longs and shorts.