Bitcoin touched $79,989 on Monday as exchange open interest raced toward $58 billion. Options traders piled into bullish call positions on BlackRock's IBIT ETF at record volume, and derivatives desks now place max pain near $70,000 for the Aug. 28 expiry.
Open Interest Races Toward $58 Billion
Bitcoin's price hit an intraday high of $79,989 on Monday. Exchange open interest is climbing to match it, tallied at roughly $58 billion the same day, up sharply from about $49 billion only days earlier.
Binance leads the derivatives exchanges with 144,050 BTC, or about $11.51 billion, in open interest. CME follows with 125,950 BTC worth $10.07 billion. MEXC holds $5.60 billion, Gate carries $4.75 billion, and Bybit adds $4.64 billion. The move is broad: Binance open interest climbed 5.05% in 24 hours, CME rose 3.62%, and Bitget gained 4.62%. Meanwhile, BingX open interest exploded 103.60% in a day to $1.16 billion.
Traders Pay Up to Chase Bitcoin Higher
The options market shows the same appetite. On X, the Kobeissi Letter noted heavy call buying on BlackRock's IBIT, the largest U.S. spot bitcoin ETF. According to the Kobeissi Letter: "Crypto bulls are back in full force."
IBIT call volume smashed a record 1.58 million contracts on Wednesday and stayed above 1 million contracts in each of the next two sessions. Call skew, a gauge of how expensive bullish options are against downside protection, jumped 0.05 in three days, its biggest three-day increase in at least two years — evidence traders are paying steep premiums, not just betting on a rise.
Calls represent 59.37% of bitcoin options open interest, totaling 294,641.17 BTC against 201,606.44 BTC in puts. Total options open interest has climbed toward $39 billion after hovering around $25 billion earlier in August, dragging the market back toward the roughly $35 billion to $45 billion range seen in spring.
Max Pain Sits Near $70,000 for Aug. 28
Deribit's Sept. 25 $70,000 call leads open interest with 11,037.4 BTC. The Dec. 25 $80,000 call carries 8,749.3 BTC. Calls at $100,000 and $120,000 also sit among the exchange's largest outstanding positions.
Yet expiration dates matter more as leverage piles up. Deribit places max pain, the price where the most options expire worthless, near $78,000 for Aug. 25 before sliding toward $70,000 for Aug. 28; Binance shows comparable levels. Dealers who sold those calls may buy IBIT shares or other bitcoin exposure to hedge, a flow that can add a tailwind while bitcoin climbs but reverse quickly if it retreats.
Source: Bitcoin News
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
