Data shows the Ethereum Open Interest has recently observed a sharp jump to a new all-time high (ATH) of around $16.8 billion.

Ethereum Open Interest Has Shot Up Recently

In a new post on X, CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn has discussed about the latest trend in the Ethereum Open Interest. The “Open Interest” here is an indicator that keeps track of the total amount of ETH-related derivatives positions currently open on all centralized exchanges.

Below is the chart the analyst shared that shows this metric’s trend over the past week.

The graph shows that the Ethereum Open Interest has observed a sharp increase over the past day. This means the investors have just opened many new positions on the derivatives market.

Generally, the total amount of leverage in the market goes up whenever new positions pop up, so mass liquidation events can become more probable.

A Mass liquidation event, popularly called a squeeze, can be a violent event where a large amount of liquidations occur simultaneously, feeding back into the price move that caused them. This provides more fuel for the move, which in turn causes even more liquidation.

Ethereum has been rallying recently, so some speculative interest is normal, but the scale of the latest Open Interest increase may be concerning. The metric has increased by around 19% within a 24-hour span, reaching a new ATH of around $16.8 billion.

As has often happened in history, this rapid growth in the Ethereum Open Interest could once again lead into volatility for the asset’s price. “This is guaranteed for heavy fireworks,” notes Maartunn.

In theory, the volatility resulting from this increase in the indicator could take the asset in either direction. Still, since the rise has come alongside a rally in the ETH price, these positions will likely be long.

And indeed, as an analyst pointed out in a CryptoQuant Quicktake post, the Ethereum Funding Rates have been positive recently, implying the long positions have been outweighing the short ones.

Usually, a squeeze is more likely to affect the side of the market with more positions. As such, if the overheated derivatives market unwinds in a volatile storm, Ethereum may come out with a drawdown in the price.

ETH Price

At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading at around $3,500, up almost 7% over the last seven days.