Who's attracting real liquidity

Author:momo, ChainCatcher

 

Introduction:

As successive contracts gradually become the central trading scene in the encrypted market, the competition between exchanges is long gone beyond “who has a higher volume of transactions” to who can carry more leverage, settle more long-term positions, and eventually become a real liquidity centre for markets。

Of all derivatives indicators, Open Interest, or OI, is one of the data that best reflects this pattern of competition。

THE OI REPRESENTS THE TOTAL VALUE OF CONTRACTS THAT ARE CURRENTLY NOT FLAT IN THE MARKET AND, IN ESSENCE, THE SUM OF LEVERAGE POSITIONS WHERE TRADERS ARE STILL PRESENT AND THE GAME IS NOT OVER. OI IS CLOSER TO THE REAL “STOCK POOL” OF THE EXCHANGE THAN IT IS TO TRADE VOLUMES, WHICH ARE VULNERABLE TO BRUSHING, ACTIVITY INCENTIVES, HIGH FREQUENCY TRANSACTIONS. BECAUSE BEHIND EACH OF THE OIS IS THAT THE USER HAS ACTUALLY TAKEN THE BOND, THAT THE PLATFORM HAS A REAL LIQUIDATION RISK AND THAT THE MARKET HAS A REAL RISK EXPOSURE。

AT THIS STAGE, ESPECIALLY, WITH THE RISE OF ENDURING CONTRACTS IN THE CHAIN AND THE REDISTRIBUTION OF GLOBAL TRANSACTION LIQUIDITY, OI HAS CHANGED NOT ONLY FROM DATA FLUCTUATIONS ON INDIVIDUAL PLATFORMS, BUT ALSO FROM A MICROCOSM OF THE EVOLUTION OF COMPETITIVE PATTERNS ACROSS EXCHANGES。

This paper will decompetition the current derivatives market from multiple data dimensions (data source: Coinglass) around the head of the Chinese-language exchange and the main competition platform 's April OO performance. The core findings of this paper are as follows:

• BinanceWITH 29% OF THE OS SHARE OF THE FAULT LEADINGBybitandMEXCMarket shares were second and third at 12.78 per cent and 12.13 per cent, respectively。

• HyperliquidTHE MAXIMUM QUANTITY OF OI/TRANSACTIONS OF 1.44 SHOWS THAT ITS STORAGE FEATURES ARE MORE VISIBLE AND SHORT-LINE EXCHANGES ARE RELATIVELY LOWOKXandHTXShort-line transactions account for a relatively higher proportion of the ranking。

• BinanceandOKXRESERVE ASSETS ARE MORE ADEQUATE THAN OIMEXCThe OC / POR ratio is the highest and shows a higher leverage load strength。

• OnlyMEXCandKuCoinTHE OI WAS HIGH IN APRIL, AND MOST OF THE REMAINING PLATFORMS HAVE NOT RECOVERED THE JANUARY HEIGHT。

• MEXCandKuCoinTHE GROWTH OF THE OI WAS ACCOMPANIED BY HIGHER FINANCIAL RATES AND FLUCTUATIONS, WITH A RELATIVELY HIGHER CONCENTRATION OF MULTI-HEAD EMOTIONSBinanceTHE OC GROWTH WAS RELATIVELY SMOOTHER AND THE TARIFF STRUCTURE MORE BALANCED。

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I. OI MARKET SIZE AND MARKET SHARE

Look at the overall market level. According to Coinglass, in April 2026 the global derivatives market did not have an open contract of $12.383 billion per day, with a monthly peak of $13.325.5 billion on 18 April。

Focused on nine mainstream exchanges, namely Binance, Bybit, MEXC, Gate, OKX, Bitget, Hyperliquid, KuCoin, HTX, we calculated their daily average of OI in April and their market share in nine exchanges。

By April, the average size of the OI reached over $23.6 billion, with a steady 29 per cent share above the 2nd and 3rd sum, and the fault edge remained clear. The second is composed of Bybit, MEXC, Gate, with a share of between 11.5 and 13 per cent, and three very tight bites。

The shares of OkX, Bitget, Hyperliquid and KuCoin in the third column fell between 6.7 and 8.0 per cent。

It is worth noting that Hyperliquid, the only decentrified derivative platform, is in the seventh place, surpassing the mainstream CEX of KuCoin, Bitget, and HTX at the end of the 5.3 per cent column, which is somewhat different from the head。

LOOKING AT THE PEAKS OF THE EXCHANGES IN APRIL AND THE GAP WITH DAILY AVERAGES, THE SENSITIVITY OF THEIR OI TO MARKET SENTIMENT AND THE DEPTH OF LIQUIDITY CAN BE MEASURED。

Most exchanges peaked on 18 April, in line with market-wide peaks。

In absolute terms, Binance reached $26.55 billion on April 18, 2.3 times the second bybit 115.55 billion, demonstrating the ability of Binance to absorb more silos in volatile situations。

The relatively volatile peaks of MEXC and Gate exceed 15 per cent, significantly higher than the 12.4 per cent of Binance and 10.9 per cent of Bybit, indicating that OI of the two platforms are more affected by short-term emotions and may be more active in short-term capital games. Binance, although the largest absolute increase, is at a moderate level of relative volatility, indicating that its liquidity pool is sufficiently deep to better absorb sudden financial shocks。

The peak of Hyperliquid, which appeared on April 14, was four days ahead of the market-wide mainstream peak, with a peak of 12.0 per cent higher than that of Binance, largely at the same pace as Binance, but with a pulsive rhythm independent of CEX, which suggests that derivatives on the chain sometimes reflect more early emotional changes in high-risk preferences。

II. OI TRENDS IN GROWTH

FROM JANUARY TO APRIL, ALL EXCHANGES EXPERIENCED A MARKED DECLINE IN FEBRUARY, WHICH WAS RELATED TO THE OVERALL MARKET REVERSAL. FAMILY MOVEMENTS BEGAN TO DIVIDE IN MARCH。

Binance rose at $29,416 million in January, fell sharply to $20,733 million in February, a decline of 29.5 per cent, then recovered in the following two months, reaching $23,616 million in April. Although absolute volume is still far ahead, the OI that has been up to date since the beginning of the year has yet to return to its January high point, with an overall pattern of shock that is “high and low, but not new”。

MEXC and KuCoin are the only two April OI exchanges that are significantly higher than February-March. MEXC rebounded from $7,388 million in February to $9,878 million in April, surpassing $8,912 million in January, moving out of the V-type and reaching new peaks during the year. KuCoin recovered from $4.522 billion in February to $5.489 billion in April, also surpassing $5.31 billion in January, and rebounded more than most CEX. This negative growth, or the release of products to specific high-variant currencies or differential contracts, indicates that some high-risk preference funds are moving to platforms where small and medium-market currencies are concentrated。

OI of the six exchanges Bybit, Gate, OKX, Bitget, Hyperliquid, HTX, after falling in February, was unable to recover the lost ground in March-April, after only a small internal shock or continued to decline. Of these, the decreases in Hyperliquid, Gate and Bybit are more pronounced, with April OC falling by about 31%, 27% and 21% respectively compared to January. This data performance is partly indicative of the fact that the stock of funds, mainly by institutional or senior traders, continues to maintain a watch-and-see strategy and that asset efficiency has not yet returned to dynamism。

III. SALUDITY (OI / TRADE VOLUME)

(Note: The original serial number here is “II” and has been structured according to the structure of the article as “III”)

OI MEASURES THE “STOCK LEVERAGE SIZE” IN THE MARKET, WHILE THE OO/TRADE VOLUME RATIO IS ESSENTIALLY A MEASUREMENT OF THE “STORAGE RETENTION CHARACTERISTIC BEHIND THE TRADE VOLUME”. WHEN THE VOLUME OF TRANSACTIONS IS GROWING RAPIDLY, BUT THE GROWTH OF THE OI IS LIMITED, IT MEANS THAT MORE TRANSACTIONS COME FROM SHORT-LINE SWAPS RATHER THAN FROM THE CONTINUOUS ACCUMULATION OF NEW RISK EXPOSURES. AT THIS POINT, MARKET BOOMS MAY BE MORE CHARACTERIZED BY LIQUIDITY CYCLES THAN REAL CAPITAL EXPANSION。

WE DIVIDE THE AVERAGE DAILY TURNOVER OF THE NINE EXCHANGES IN APRIL BY THE AVERAGE DAILY TURNOVER AND GET THEIR RESPECTIVE OC/TRANSACTION RATIOS。

In terms of margin distribution, there are clearly different user hold characteristics in each exchange。

Hyperliquid is first in 1.44 and is the only platform for OI to exceed the daily average trade volume, showing a relatively low level of storage efficiency and short-line switching. Prothik Desai, a researcher at Crypto this year, also has data in Bo that show that the OI/transaction ratio on the chain-continuing contract platform is generally higher than that of the centralized exchange, reflecting the preference of DEX users to hold-out transactions rather than to switch hands。

Bybit is the best performer in CEX with 0.81, indicating that its users are relatively ready. Four of the KuCoin, Gate, MEXC and Bitget were in the middle range, with a close margin and little variation in retention efficiency。

Binance had a margin of 0.40, and was seventh in nine households. This is not a weak retention capacity, but a very large trading base. A daily average of $58.9 billion is nearly five times the second bybit. Under such a huge flow, $23.6 billion of the OI is still deposited, and absolute stocks remain the top market。

THE LOGARITHMIC VALUES FOR OKX AND HTX ARE 0.29 AND 0.14, RESPECTIVELY, AT THE END. THE AVERAGE DAILY TRANSACTION VOLUME OF BOTH HOUSEHOLDS IS NOT LOW, BUT THE APPARENT LOW LEVEL OF OI REFLECTS THE HIGH TURNOVER OF SHORT-TERM SWAPS AND THE RELATIVELY LOW EFFICIENCY WITH WHICH FUNDS ARE DEPOSITED. THIS STRUCTURE MAY FACE FASTER LIQUIDITY CONTRACTION WHEN MARKET VOLATILITY INCREASES。

IV. LEVERAGE PRESSURE (OI / ASSET RESERVE)

The OI/PR (asset reserve) ratio measures the amount of unsettled contracts supported by each dollar reserve。

The lower the ratio means that the platform ' s reserve is relatively adequate; the higher the ratio means that the platform carries a larger unwinding leverage position under the relatively limited reserve size。

Because Hyperliquid uses a chain-based transparent clearing mechanism, with relatively single asset structures and almost stable currency reserves, this paper views it as a “high-transparent leverage” reference anchor to observe the relative relationship of CEX to OI, rather than absolute safety standards。

Using Hyperliquid 1.07 as a reference anchor, the CEXs show a clear division between reserve size and OI。

The clearly low ratio of Binance to OKX indicates that its reserve assets are more adequate than OI. Of these, Binance ' s average daily reserve assets are more than six times greater than OI, showing a relatively conservative leveraging structure in the head exchange; OKX also has a large reserve cover。

Bybit's rate is 0.78, in the medium range. The size of its asset reserves grew faster than in January, and the overall structure improved more than before。

Bitget's ratio with HTX is around 1.03, which is close to Hyperliquid's reference structure, indicating a relative balance between its OI and reserve size。

The ratio of Gate.io to KuCoin is higher than the reference level, which means that it carries a larger unwinding leverage position on a relatively limited reserve size. Of this amount, Gate.io ' s average daily reserve is about $6.46 billion, corresponding to approximately $9.39 billion of OI; KuCoin ' s reserves and OI relations are similarly characterized。

The MEXC ratio of 1.96 is the highest platform in the sample. Its daily average reserve is about $5.03 billion, corresponding to approximately $9.88 billion of open contracts, indicating a high leverage load intensity. According to CoinMarketCap data, the relatively high share of stable currency in the MEXC reserve has helped to improve liquidity transfer capacity; but at the same time, a higher OC/reserve structure has meant that the platform has placed higher demands on liquidity management, risk control and liquidation mechanisms。

On the other hand, the higher OC/PR ratio also means that the platform supports larger contractual transactions on unit reserve assets, reflecting higher capital intensity. This efficient structure, however, is often accompanied by a higher degree of volatility and, in extreme cases, by a significantly higher demand for a platform wind control system。

V. Financial structure stability (fund rate)

Let's look at the rate of money, which is the direct cost of multi-space games and reveals the “quality of distribution” of different exchange leverage structures: Some of the platforms are health expansion, some are unilateral crowding, and others are stock games in the liquidity downturn。

MEXC and KuCoin increased by 22.8 per cent and 15.4 per cent in April, respectively, but the average daily rates reached 0.025 per cent and 0.021 per cent, respectively, and the percentage of the positive rate reached 77 per cent and 70 per cent, respectively, indicating that the additional space was highly concentrated on multiple fronts. At the same time, their standard rate differentials were 0.032 and 0.024 were among the highest in nine households。

WHILE HIGH STANDARDS ARE NOT DIRECTLY EQUIVALENT TO FREQUENT EMOTIONAL SHIFTS, THEY MAY ALSO REFLECT CONTINUED MULTIPLE PREMIUMS UNDER UNILATERAL TRENDS, SHORT-TERM EMPTINESS OR GREATER OVERALL MARKET VOLATILITY. BUT IN ANY CASE, THIS “HIGH LEVERAGE, STRONG UNILATERAL, HIGHLY VOLATILE” RATE STRUCTURE, WHEN MARKETS SUDDENLY RETREAT, CAN EASILY TRIGGER MULTI-PRONGED LIQUIDATION, LEADING TO SHARP CONTRACTIONS IN OI。

Binance's performance reflects the wind control of the head platform. April OC experienced steady growth of 6.1 per cent, but its funding rate was 0.012 per cent and volatility remained at moderate rates. The positive rate of 63 per cent indicates that many are dominant but do not constitute absolute overcrowding. This tariff structure, combined with a huge depth, makes Binance ' s leverage structure more resilient, effectively absorbs small- and medium-scale price shocks and is a relatively healthy leveraging expansion。

Bybit and Gate moved negatively at the rate hub while OO was down, reflecting a weakening of market interest and a plethora of active silos。

Of concern is Hyperliquid, whose OI suffered a 6.4 per cent contraction, despite maintaining a high positive rate of 0.018 per cent. This contrast of “hard rates and outflows” suggests that while many of the platform's obstinacy, overall liquidity is being eroded by external competition or tactical accommodation, and its leverage appeal is being phased out。

The average rates for the three platforms, OKX, Bitget and HTX, are close to zero and extremely low, and multi-empty power is in a long-term equilibrium. Micro-changes of its OI are confirmed, reflecting that its user structure is dominated by stock arbitrage or low frequency transactions. While there is a short-term lack of energy to jump-start growth, such balanced leverage structures tend to show greater risk resistance in extreme market situations。

Comprehensive analysis and outlook

The following core judgements can be drawn from the five dimensions of consolidation of the size of the open contract, growth trends, warehousing characteristics, reserve security cushions and fund rates:

• Binance's lead position is stronger than trade volume data。Binance averaged $23.6 billion per day in April, accounting for nearly 30 per cent of the market. The reserve is six times greater than OI and has the strongest security cushion; the rate is moderate and increases health. It is not only the largest leverage pool but also the most conservative core infrastructure。

• The competitive pattern of derivatives from the second tier remains dynamically divided。Bybit, MEXC, Gate shares between 11.5% and 13%. MEXC leverage is the most radical, OI nearly double the reserves, and the reverse growth is nearly 23%. Bybit reserves are better covered and more prepared. OKX reserves are extremely thick, but the transaction consists of a higher short-line change. Hyperliquid, representing DEX, has reached $5.5 billion and is the first to be skunk, but has recently experienced high rates and a contraction of OI, which has led to overcrowding. The traditional CEX is also faced with both sides of the compliance platform and chain agreement。

• The market is in a prudential rehabilitation phase。All platforms are down in February, most of the March to April have not recovered a month of highs, except for MEXC and KuCoin. (c) Stock funding as a whole. Following on, attention will need to be paid to the Federal Reserve policy, the real-life ETF flows of Bitcoin and the progress of regulation in key areas, which will determine whether OI will continue to repair or shift to expansion or contraction。

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References:

• YesLeverage Hijacking: When we look at the exchange with OI/PR, who's running nakedIt's the only thing that's going on

• YesMoving Perps Beyond VolumeIt's the only thing that's going on

• YesCoinglass: 2026 Q1 Encrypted money market share studyIt's the only thing that's going on