At 10 a.m. EST on June 28, 2026, bitcoin traded at $60,041 per coin. The timing is not coincidental. Across Deribit, Binance, and OKX, max pain levels converge near $60,000, meaning that is the price at which the largest number of options contracts expire worthless, inflicting the maximum financial pain on options holders.
Futures Open Interest Falls Across the Board
Total bitcoin futures open interest (OI) across exchanges stands at approximately $42.6 billion in USD terms, well below the cycle peak near $95 billion hit in late 2025. The decline in OI mirrors bitcoin’s price retreat from its all-time high above $126,000 last October.
Binance leads all exchanges with 138.09K $BTC in futures open interest worth $8.30 billion, holding an 18.67% market share. CME comes in second with 105.27K $BTC at $6.33 billion, reflecting a persistent institutional presence in regulated futures. MEXC ranks third by $BTC volume at 81.26K $BTC worth $4.89 billion.
OI changes across the 24-hour window were broadly negative. Binance dropped 1.29%, Bybit fell 1.31%, and Bitget slid 1.50%. BingX posted the sharpest decline at negative 38.18% over 24 hours, though that figure likely reflects a position cleanup rather than broad market selling. Kucoin managed to buck the trend, posting a 7.99% increase in OI over 24 hours.
Coinglass data shows that the OI-to-24h- volume ratio across exchanges sits near typical ranges, with the decentralized perps exchange Hyperliquid posting the highest ratio at 1.9865, indicating proportionally elevated trading relative to open positions.
Options Market: Calls Lead Open Interest, Puts Lead Volume
On the options side, Coinglass metrics show that the split between calls and puts tells a nuanced story. Total $BTC options open interest on Deribit shows a clear call bias: 241,010 $BTC in calls (60.41%) versus 157,934 $BTC in puts (39.59%). That skew suggests traders positioned for upside over longer horizons.
Over the past 24 hours, trading volume between calls and puts was nearly even, with puts edging ahead at 50.87% versus 49.13% for calls. The most actively traded contracts on Deribit were bets that bitcoin would fall below $57,000 and $57,500 by today’s close, a sign that traders were paying to protect themselves heading into the next expiry.
Looking further out, the biggest single positions in the options market are bets that bitcoin reaches $80,000 by July 31 and again by December 25. Those contracts hold 7,001 $BTC and 6,605 $BTC respectively, suggesting that while near-term sentiment is cautious, a meaningful chunk of the market is still positioned for a significant price recovery before year-end.
CME Options OI Hits a Yearly Low
CME bitcoin options open interest has declined sharply since the November 2025 peak. Cryptoquant data shows total CME options OI dropped to its lowest levels of the past year, with puts consistently outpacing calls in notional USD value since late 2025. The call OI at CME is minimal compared to the put stack, a signal that institutional hedgers on the regulated exchange have been leaning defensive as price declined from six-figure territory.
Max Pain Levels: Deribit, Binance, OKX All Point to $60K
Deribit’s max pain line for the June 25, 2027, quarterly expiry sits near $60,000, with notional value on that contract just over $2 billion. The September 2026 expiry carries the highest notional value at $7.53 billion, with a max pain level approaching $74,000 on the Deribit curve, the most consequential expiry on the board.
Binance max pain for today’s expiry stands at approximately $40,000, with the July 31, 2026, contract showing a max pain near $65,000 and roughly $400 million in notional value. OKX max pain for the near-term contracts clusters between $50,000 and $60,000, with the March 2027 expiry showing the highest max pain near $75,000 and $747 million in notional value.
What This Means for Traders
With bitcoin sitting almost exactly at today’s max pain price and futures OI at multi-month lows, the market is entering a period of reduced leverage. Positioning has thinned considerably since the peak. That can cut both ways: lighter OI reduces the fuel for forced liquidation cascades, but it also signals that speculative conviction has left the market for now.
The September 2026 Deribit expiry, carrying $7.53 billion in notional value and a max pain near $74,000, gives traders a clear medium-term reference point to watch.
