Bitcoin’s run toward $80,000 this month lit a fire under perpetual futures traders. The 30-day change in BTC open interest surged to its highest level of 2026, according to CryptoQuant. That growth rate eclipsed even the January rally, and Binance — the exchange holding the biggest slice of that open interest — pulled in the largest share of inflows.
What made May different
The January rally was strong, but it didn’t draw the same speculative heat. CryptoQuant’s data shows the 30-day change in open interest in May blew past the January peak. Traders piled into leveraged positions faster than at any point this year, pushing notional exposure higher as Bitcoin neared the psychological $80,000 mark. The frenzy was concentrated on Binance, which hosts the highest Bitcoin open interest among exchanges and saw the most inbound capital during the run-up.
The February hangover
It wasn’t that long ago that open interest was in the red. Bitcoin’s price crashed at the start of February, triggering a wave of liquidations that slammed the 30-day change into negative territory. That hangover lasted into March, when the monthly change finally stabilized, turned slightly positive, and kept improving through April. By May, the momentum had shifted entirely — from the liquidation spiral of February to the speculative surge of the past few weeks.
Current picture: $77,000 and cooling
The rally hasn’t held. Bitcoin is trading around $77,000 as of this writing, down more than 4% over the last seven days. That pullback comes after the fastest open interest buildup of the year, which raises a familiar question: how much of that leverage will unwind if the price keeps slipping? The February crash showed how quickly a crowded long book can turn into a cascade of liquidations. For now, the open interest data is still elevated, but the next few days will tell whether the speculative frenzy is fading or just taking a breather.
