Bitcoin Perpetuals Stay Below Spot for 156 Hours as Open Interest Rises

Bitcoin perpetual futures traded below spot for 156 consecutive hours as open interest added 22,000 BTC in a week, a combination that CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr. said raises deleveraging risk.

In the latest 24 hours, perpetual futures traded at a 0.047% discount to spot. The discount has widened since Nov. 6, a move Adler linked to selling pressure in the futures market. The 156-hour measure tracks the continuous below-spot stretch; 0.047% is the discount over the latest 24 hours.

Open interest rose by 22,000 BTC over the past week to 367,400 BTC, one of the strongest weekly gains since August. The figures cover different windows: a 24-hour discount reading and a weekly open-interest change.

Adler assessed that a weak futures basis and rising open interest together leave the market more exposed to forced deleveraging. A decline in open interest, he said, would indicate that leverage is being reduced.