Altcoin futures open interest overtakes Bitcoin, first time since December 2024
DeFi & Yields ·
A shift in derivatives positioning has pushed combined altcoin perpetual futures open interest past Bitcoin's for the first time in roughly nine months, coinciding with a record run in ZEC.
Data from Coinalyze cited in a report shows that open interest tied to altcoin perpetuals has climbed above Bitcoin's own total, a positioning change not seen since December 2024. Alongside this, the combined market value of tokens ranked outside the top 10 by size has moved past $200 billion, marking a gain of more than 10% since early September.
Zcash has been a focal point of the move. Open interest in ZEC perpetuals hit a record $2.4 billion in early September, alongside a price advance that carried the token above the $1,000 mark. That price crossing forced $34 million worth of short positions to be liquidated, as traders betting against the rally were squeezed out.
The mechanics behind these figures point to leveraged positioning building up quickly across smaller tokens rather than Bitcoin, which had held the larger share of futures activity for months. Rising open interest paired with a sharp price move, as seen in ZEC, tends to generate outsized liquidation events on the side caught wrong-footed, in this case short sellers.
The report notes that comparable shifts, where altcoin open interest and market cap outside the largest tokens expand quickly, have in the past come before sharp pullbacks in mid-cap assets. Whether that pattern repeats this time is not established by the available data.
What remains unclear is how long the altcoin open interest lead over Bitcoin persists, and whether the ZEC liquidation event marks a peak or an early stage of continued positioning. No timeline or confirmation of a reversal has been reported beyond the early-September figures.