BTC: Futures Open Interest Heatmap (Estimated)

Shown as its 2–31 Oct 2026 sample; the latest readings and full history are included with Plus.

Estimated BTC perpetual positions opened minus closed at each price over the past week, by distance from the price, over time.

Why use it. Positions are opened at a price and their holders tend to defend it: dense bands of recent openings mark levels where traders sit at break-even and stops cluster, so a return of the price there can set off a burst of closing; the estimated liquidation heatmap shows where those positions would be forced out. How to read it. Time runs across and distance from the period's closing price runs up. Blue cells hold more positions opened than closed at those prices, red cells more closed than opened, on a two-sided scale symmetric to the largest value shown. Recent activity is brightest: each minute counts half for every day since and drops out after seven days. Bands drift as the price moves, since distances are measured from each period's close.

Calculation. Longs and shorts opened and closed are estimated minute by minute from changes in open interest and the side that traded aggressively on each venue (the rule of Futures Net Longs and Net Shorts). Each minute's estimated longs opened and shorts closed are placed at the prices where takers bought in that minute, and its shorts opened and longs closed at the prices where takers sold, in proportion to the taker volume traded at each price on the perpetual markets we capture (all venues together, in price rows of about 0.1% or finer). A column sums, for each 0.5% band from 15% below to 15% above the period's closing price, the positions opened minus the positions closed at those prices over the seven days to the period's end, each minute weighted by half for every day since. Hourly and daily columns show the state at the period's end; the open period is a partial. The map starts on 22 October 2026, when our price-level capture began, and fills in over its first week. Venues: Binance (its USD-margined contracts), Bybit, OKX, Bitget, Gate, Hyperliquid, KuCoin, HTX, Crypto.com and Kraken. Deribit is left out because from 10 November 2026 it publishes open interest eight hours late, so its changes cannot be credited as they happen; Bitfinex and Coinbase Derivatives because we do not capture their trades. Source: our own minute-by-minute collection of public futures data from Binance, Bybit, OKX, Bitget, Gate, Hyperliquid, KuCoin, HTX, Crypto.com and Kraken (open interest), and our own trade-by-trade and price-level capture of the public perpetual trade feeds, which began on 20 and 22 October 2026. Venues we do not collect are not included, so totals understate the whole market.