Over the past week Bitcoin rose nearly 10%, reclaiming the $73,000 zone for the first time since mid-March and giving the market a cautiously bullish tone. Yet derivatives traders have not shown full conviction: short interest climbed over the same period, suggesting some participants expect a pullback.
Market analyst Amr Taha points out that the price advance came alongside a surge in futures activity and leverage on major exchanges, but on-chain metrics show fresh flows were skewed toward bearish positioning. CryptoQuant’s “BTC: Open Interest Change By Exchange (7D)” indicates Binance added about $350 million in open interest on April 9 — its largest single-day addition since March 20. Bybit contributed roughly $299 million and OKX about $200 million in new contracts.
Despite the rise in open interest, Binance’s “Cumulative Net Taker Volume/OI (24H)” did not climb in step. Net taker volume measures aggressive market buying versus selling; the data imply that aggressive buy-side volume accounted for only a small fraction of the new futures exposure on April 9. In other words, much of the added open interest appears tied to bearish bets or passive limit orders rather than unabashed long positioning.
That nuance matters: with leveraged derivatives showing limited aggressive buying, the sustainability of the rally may depend more on real spot demand than on fresh leveraged longs. If spot buyers do not step in, the market could remain vulnerable to liquidation-driven moves.
Price snapshot: Bitcoin traded around $72,837 at the time of writing, up about 0.34% over 24 hours, with daily trading volume rising roughly 3.85%. Despite the weekly gain, BTC remains roughly 42.08% below the cycle high of $126,200 recorded in October 2025. Chart and image sources: CryptoQuant, TradingView.