Bitcoin (BTC) Open Interest Hits ATH Despite Fresh Pullback

Bitcoin open interest has claimed a new all-time high amid bullish bets on higher prices despite the recent pullback.

Bitcoin (BTC) price dropped by 1.83% in the last 24 hours as the crypto market saw a sudden shift in tone, leading to a $107.61 billion loss in the global crypto market cap within just three hours.

The correction comes on the back of a renewed escalation of the trade war, as President Donald Trump recently threatened to impose a 50% tariff on all EU imports and a 25% tariff on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) products unless iPhones are assembled in the U.S..

As such, Bitcoin also went down drastically after recently hitting a new all-time high of $112,000. From a peak of $111,176 earlier today, crypto firstborn dropped to an extreme low of $107,367, marking a 3.43% drop in less than two hours. This represented one of Bitcoin’s sharpest slumps in recent times.

However, it saw an immediate recovery shortly after. Despite the rebound effort, the asset is still suffering from the recent crash, posting a 1.83% loss on the day, as the bears threaten to trigger Bitcoin’s largest losing day since April 13.

Also, the broader crypto market reacted bearishly, with the global crypto market cap losing a whopping $107.61 billion within three hours today. Nonetheless, despite the fresh bearishness, reports from Bloomberg (NYSE:BND) attest that bulls remain unbothered, as Bitcoin open interest claimed a new all-time high.

According to data from Coinglass, Bitcoin open interest reached $80.16 billion today. This represents an increase of over $2 billion from the figure recorded yesterday, May 22, and marks a new all-time high for Bitcoin open interest in the futures market.

The Bloomberg report highlighted data from (CRYPTO:DERI) Deribit, suggesting that this surge in Bitcoin’s open interest skews mainly toward bullish sentiment.

An investigation by The Crypto Basic confirmed this. Specifically, for the June 27 expiration data, the total call open interest is 66,510 contracts, out of which 17,717 are ITM (in-the-money) and 48,793 are OTM (out-of-money). This corresponds to a notional value of about $7.29 billion for calls, with OTM calls representing over 73% of that.

On the put side, the total open interest is 36,663 contracts, with only 1,489 ITM and 35,174 OTM, making nearly 96% of puts OTM. Essentially, the notional value for puts is $4.02 billion.

Combined, the puts and calls give a total notional value of $11.31 billion, with most of it, over 81%, in out-of-the-money contracts.

This means most of the capital is betting on large moves that have not yet materialized. Importantly, calls make up the larger portion of both open interest and notional value, suggesting a skew toward bullish positioning.

From a sentiment standpoint, this data leans bullish. The dominance of call options over puts, especially with the large number of OTM calls, indicates that more market participants are expecting higher Bitcoin prices by late June.

In addition, institutional interest in Bitcoin through the ETF products is through the roof. Yesterday, total net inflows into Bitcoin ETFs hit a high of $934.74 million, according to data from Sosovalue. This represented the highest intraday net flow this month, bringing total assets in these products to $134.3 billion.

Notably, the bullish sentiment is expected, considering these metrics as well as recent reports suggesting that despite BTC claiming new ATHs, retail investors are yet to decisively enter the market.

Currently, Bitcoin changes hands at $109,653.