Bitcoin is trading above $73,000 Friday evening, and the data derived behind that price tells a more cautious story than the spot figure suggests. On futures exchanges and options desks, traders have been accumulating protections, reducing call exposure and observing a cluster of maximum pain levels that are putting significant pressure just below current prices.
Key points to remember:
- CME Bitcoin Options Open Interest shows that puts have dominated since late 2025, with calls holding a 57% advantage over Deribit as of April 2026.
- Total $BTC OI options have reached over $30 billion, while Binance leads futures with $9.31 billion and CME ranks second with $8.74 billion across 11 exchanges tracked.
- The maximum pain levels on the Deribit, OKX and Binance cluster are near $70,000 to $72,000 before the April 24, 2026 expiration with the highest national value.
Futures Open Interest: Binance in the lead, CME close behind
Total Bitcoin futures open interest (OI) on major exchanges is in the tens of billions, according to statistics from coinglass.com. Binance currently holds the top spot at 127.39K $BTCapproximately $9.31 billion, or 16.86% of the tracked market. CME comes in second with 119.64K $BTC ($8.74 billion, 15.83%), followed by MEXC at 91.65K $BTC ($6.7 billion). Gate, Bybit, and OKX round out the next tier with $4.57 billion, $4.70 billion, and $3.23 billion, respectively.
Over the past 24 hours, most exchanges have shown positive changes in open interest. Gate led at +9.04%, Bybit at +7.84% and Kucoin at +7.44%. BingX was a notable outlier, showing a -15.70% 4-hour change, suggesting an unwinding position on this platform. The broader trend, however, points upwards, with OI recovering from the lows reached in January and February 2026.
Futures Open Interest in Context: Out of Peak, Rebuilding
The longer-term view of Bitcoin futures open interest shows just how far we’ve come. From $30 billion in mid-2024, total OI stood at nearly $100 billion toward the end of 2025, when bitcoin reached all-time highs above $120,000.
The subsequent drawdown caused IO to decline sharply, bottoming out near $40 billion in early 2026, ahead of the current rebuild toward the $45-$50 billion range. Price and open interest are moving together again, which traders generally view as healthier positioning. Essentially, the market is reforming after the massive sell-off on October 10 last year.
CME options: a contracting market with a Lean Put
CME Bitcoin Options Open Interest Tells a Contraction Story. The late 2025 peak saw weekly stacked bars reach 70,000 contracts. In early 2026, this number fell sharply, falling into the 10,000 to 15,000 contract range in February before a modest rebound in March and April. The current figure is around 20,000 contracts for the most recent expiration period, a fraction of last year’s highs.
The composition is more revealing. Compared by position type, calls versus puts, the CME options market has been heavily biased toward selling since October 2025. Open interest on U.S. dollar puts reached nearly $285 million in December 2025 and remained elevated through April 2026, while call exposure has nearly evaporated, hovering near zero in recent weeks. Traders on CME buy protection. They don’t make bullish bets.
Options Market Breadth: Deribit Still Dominates
Across all exchanges, total open interest in Bitcoin options peaked at nearly $30 billion in late 2025 and remains within that range today. On Deribit, the biggest bets are around $120,000 by December 2026 and $80,000 by May 2026, with the $80,000 strike also seeing the largest single-day trading volume on OKX. Traders are clearly setting their targets well above current prices.
Broader options are optimistic at the moment. On Deribit, calls, i.e. bets that bitcoin will go higher, outnumber puts or bets on a price decline, by about 57% to 43%. Friday’s trading volume reflects the same situation, with calls accounting for about 61% of activity compared to 39% for puts.
Max Pain: three exchanges, one clear message
Peak pain levels at Deribit, Binance, and OKX are all between $70,000 and $72,000, with significant national value tied to the April 24, 2026 expiration. On Deribit, the April 24 expiration carries the highest national mark of around $8 billion, with peak pain sitting around $72,000. The June 26 expiration also shows a national high near $8 billion with a peak pain near $75,500 before declining sharply towards the end of the year.
Binance’s peak pain data shows that the short-term expirations, April 11-13, cost between $71,000 and $72,000, while the April 24 contract, the heaviest domestically, anchors at around $71,500. OKX follows the same path, with April 24 carrying the most weight and maximum pain hovering between $70,000 and $75,500 in the short to medium term.
With bitcoin at $73,000 today and maximum pain concentrated just below $70,000 to $72,000, the mechanics of the options market alone are creating a headwind. Whether the spot market meets these levels is another question, but derivatives data clarifies the situation.