Learn hubBlogUnderstand BINANCE COIN OI — open interest on Binance futures and how it differs from volume.
Open interest (OI) on a coin's Binance futures. It is the total of all positions open right now, in millions of dollars.
How it differs from volume: volume shows how much was traded during the bar. OI shows how much remains open.
What goes into it. Two Binance perpetual contracts per coin: the USDT contract and COIN-M, where the collateral is the coin itself. The USDC contract and quarterly futures are not included. Services that count only the USDT contract, and in coins, will show a different number — that's not an error, just a different composition.
Dollars or coins. In dollars, OI rises with the price even if no positions were added. In coins you see the positions themselves: in a rally, OI in dollars can rise while OI in coins falls — positions are being closed, but the dollar value of the rest went up. Units are switched in the settings; the mode is shown in the legend.
See whether money is flowing into futures or out. A price move on new positions and one on old positions closing are different things.
For example.
Data windows. The “USDT only” and “COINS” modes have data from late October 2025, and on the 1m timeframe from September 26, 2026. Before these dates the line is empty in the new modes.
| Field | Options | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contracts | ALL USDT only | ALL | ALL — the USDT contract plus COIN-M. USDT only — the USDT contract alone, the way single-contract services count it; handy for cross-checking. |
| Units | $M COINS | $M | $M — positions at the current price, in millions of dollars. COINS — the number of coins in positions, unaffected by price. - Want to see whether positions are opening or closing — COINS. |
| Exchange | Chart Binance | Chart | Where to take OI from. Right now derivatives data comes only from Binance; Hyperliquid is being connected, and after that a choice will appear here. |
Metric BINANCE COIN OI. Condition fields:
Contracts and Units are the same settings as on the chart: ALL or USDT ONLY, $M or COINS.
BINANCE TOTAL OI — total OI across all Binance perpetual futures. Quarterly contracts are not included, so the line has no dip on their expiry day. History is exact from March 24, 2026; before that it is an estimate recalculated with a coefficient, so don't base conclusions on it. In alerts it is the BINANCE TOTAL OI metric, with Timeframe as the only field.
OI is the total of all futures positions open right now. Rising — positions are opening, falling — closing. A position changing hands doesn't change OI. It's counted over two Binance perpetual contracts, in dollars or in coins, across all contracts or USDT only.
OI rose over the bar — that means…
Correct answer: There are more open positions
The price rose 30%, OI in dollars rose, OI in coins fell. What happened to positions?
Correct answer: Positions were being closed: there are fewer of them, but the dollar value of the rest went up