Crypto: altcoins take the lead in derivatives
The shift occurred on September 6. For the first time in 21 months, combined open interest in altcoin perpetual contracts became higher than Bitcoin’s. Open interest is the value of contracts that traders still have open. The more it rises, the more active positions the market contains that could be liquidated when prices move sharply.
This rotation extends a movement already visible on Bref Crypto when the altcoin rally had begun to take over from Bitcoin. At the time, Bitcoin was trading around $79,300 and several tokens were posting double-digit gains.
The figure nevertheless needs to be interpreted correctly. Adding Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Zcash and dozens of other assets naturally creates a much larger bloc than Bitcoin alone. BTC remains the largest individual crypto derivatives market.
More importantly, open interest does not mean bullish positions. Each contract matches a buyer with a seller. The metric therefore primarily measures the intensity of speculative activity and the capital committed.
Zcash added significant fuel
Zcash perfectly illustrates this rise in derivatives activity. In early September, open interest in ZEC reached around $2.4 billion, while the token was undergoing a spectacular acceleration. More than $34 million in short positions had notably been liquidated during its breakout.
Bref Crypto had already observed this mechanism when Zcash exceeded $1,200 with $2.4 billion in open interest. As ZEC rose, short sellers had to buy back their positions, which could further amplify the move.
Chainlink experienced a similar dynamic on a smaller scale. Its open interest reached $784 million when LINK touched its highest level in eight months. Bref Crypto tracked this increase in open LINK positions at the time.
The scenario therefore appears familiar: prices rise, traders accept more risk and capital returns to assets that are more volatile than Bitcoin.
Yet the latest data complicates this interpretation.
The spot market is doing part of the work
Glassnode notes on September 23 that 72.5% of the altcoins it tracks outperformed Bitcoin over the past week. During the August move, that proportion had reached only 39%. The rebound has therefore spread broadly across the market.
By contrast, altcoin perpetual open interest, when measured in tokens rather than dollars, has increased very little over the past 30 days. Less than half of the markets tracked have even recorded an increase in open positions. Glassnode therefore concludes that spot purchases are currently playing an important role in the rise.
The distinction is far from trivial.
Open interest expressed in dollars can rise simply because the value of the assets held in the contracts increases. This does not automatically mean that traders have massively added new leverage. That is precisely why it would be excessive to describe the market as entirely debt-funded.
The situation nevertheless remains sensitive. Bref Crypto has already observed how quickly a Bitcoin acceleration can trigger a wave of liquidations. In altcoins, which are generally more volatile, this mechanism can be even more severe.
Altcoins now account for an unusually large share of the crypto market’s open positions. This is a genuine shift in the distribution of risk. Glassnode’s data nevertheless avoids an overly simple conclusion: for now, the rise does not yet resemble the overheating phases of February 2021 or December 2024, when leverage was increasing almost everywhere at the same time.
In brief
- Altcoins’ combined open interest surpassed Bitcoin’s for the first time since December 2024.
- Bitcoin represented around 37% of the open interest in the perpetual contracts tracked at the time of the shift.
- Zcash contributed significantly to the move, with around $2.4 billion in open interest.
- Data from September 23 nevertheless shows little new leverage accumulation in altcoins over the past 30 days.
- The current rise is therefore also benefiting from spot-market purchases.
