- Bitcoin saw leverage-driven pump as OI rose to $27.9 billion, marking a $3.3 billion hike
- Weak demand saw Bitcoin investors flash signs of caution
Bitcoin’s [BTC] Open Interest (OI) climbed to $27.9 billion, indicating a hike in leveraged market actions following a $3.3 billion pump – A 13% boost.
Previous upticks in Open Interest led to unpredictable price fluctuations. This triggered market fluctuations that affected the cryptocurrency on both 20 February and 4 March. In fact, the leveraged-driven pump signaled traders to manage risk.
At press time, Bitcoin seemed to be maintaining a trading price of approximately $83k, even though excessive leverage could lead to market liquidations. The depreciation of long positions would trigger a fast pullback of the price towards the $70,000 to $80,000 range.
Source: X
When OI exceeded 10% in the past, the price fell by 5-8%. The same was seen back on 22 February and 06 March. The prevailing market conditions create an opening for short sellers to profit from liquidations that may occur.
A sustainable price hike above $90k could generate conditions for additional market growth. An OI flush might rapidly remove current price hikes while traders need to be careful about sudden changes in Open Interest.
How traders are reacting to weak demand?
Again, a significant reduction in BTC demand was seen from December 2024 to March 2025. Bitcoin trading saw a low annual demand of -100k BTC that occurred in mid-March 2025 after its maximum demand climbed to 105k Bitcoin in early December 2024.
The southbound in market value, together with negative demand zone structure, revealed strong investor caution. Circumstances became more unfavorable due to the 30-day sum maintaining positions under the demand line as BTC’s price fell from 105k to about 77k.
This hinted at the lack of specific investor movement information, although investors tend to secure their capital by purchasing defensive assets that are less risky. These consist of metals and U.S government bonds and stable digital currency USDT.
Source: CryptoQuant
Market participants are shifting investments to more secure assets during these uncertain times as Bitcoin’s price and market demand fall. This means that BTC holders of long positions could encounter significant risks since market conditions appear to establish the foundation for an expected bear market.
The market could also expose leveraged long position holders to forced sell-offs if the price drops to below the $80K-level and demand becomes negative at -100k.
This could lead to major losses occurring to holders since analysis pointed to bearishness when demand stays below -100k since last December. Traders who invested in BTC returning to above $100k could face losses.
