Ethereum open interest rose 2.3% in ETH on Binance as its dollar value fell 6.6%

Ethereum open interest in Binance’s ETHUSDT futures contract was 2.27% higher in ETH on Thursday, Oct. 8, over the last 48 hours, even though its USDT-denominated value had fallen 6.58%.

Open interest measures outstanding futures exposure. For traders assessing exposure remaining through the price decline, coin quantity separates changes in that exposure from changes in its valuation.

Bitcoin’s futures book provided a different version of the same distinction. Over those matched timestamps, Binance’s BTCUSDT open interest fell 1.45% in BTC units, compared with a 5.97% decline in USDT value. Most of that value decline came from repricing under the accounting method used below.

The common Oct. 6 starting point captures earlier growth as well as Thursday’s contraction. Both open-interest quantities contracted on Oct. 8. From midnight to 21:00 UTC, ETH-denominated exposure fell 2.85% and BTC-denominated exposure fell 3.03%.

The ETHUSDT hourly records show open interest rising from 2,279,556 ETH to 2,331,355 ETH across the fixed 69-hour window. Its value fell from approximately 6.175 billion USDT to 5.768 billion USDT.

The BTCUSDT records show quantity declining from 94,297 BTC to 92,927 BTC, while value fell from approximately 8.083 billion USDT to 7.6 billion USDT.

The comparison runs from Oct. 6, 2026, at 00:00 UTC to Oct. 8 at 21:00 UTC. Each series contains 70 matched hourly observations, with timestamps marking period ends under Binance’s open-interest statistics definitions. Percentage changes are calculated by dividing the ending observation by the starting observation, subtracting one and multiplying by 100.

The units matter. Binance describes USDⓈ-M trade size in base-asset quantity and its perpetual products as linear contracts quoted and settled in stablecoins. For ETHUSDT and BTCUSDT, quantity is expressed in ETH and BTC, while the corresponding valuation is in USDT. USDT’s dollar peg makes the latter a useful dollar-value proxy.

Dividing each value by its coin quantity produces an implied valuation per coin. That ratio fell from 2,708 to 2,474 USDT per ETH and from 85,718 to 81,784 USDT per BTC. These are valuations implied by the open-interest records, rather than separately observed spot prices.

First changing the outstanding quantity at the initial implied valuation, then repricing that ending quantity, separates the two contributions to the value change.

For ETH, the extra quantity would have added about 140.3 million USDT at the initial implied valuation. Repricing the ending quantity then subtracts about 546.5 million USDT, leaving a net decline of about 406.2 million USDT.

For BTC, the reduction in quantity subtracts about 117.4 million USDT at the initial implied valuation. Repricing subtracts a further 365.6 million USDT, producing the approximately 483 million USDT decline. On this accounting basis, lower valuation explains most of Bitcoin’s decrease.