Ethereum options open interest sits at 23% of futures as traders favor leverage

Open interest in ETH options now equals about 23% of futures open interest. That ratio points to a market that prefers leveraged directional bets over convexity, the asymmetric payoff profile that makes options distinct. Reading the ratio Open interest is the total value of derivatives contracts still open, not yet closed or settled. Data from Coinalyze in late September 2026 put ETH options open interest at roughly 23.8% to 24.3% of combined futures and perpetual contract open interest. Coinalyze tracked aggregated ETH futures and perpetuals open interest at about $17.8B to $18.1B. Traditional delivery futures made up only around $271M to $272M of that total. The rest belongs to perpetual futures, contracts that never expire and are kept in line with spot prices through periodic funding payments between longs and shorts. Other market estimates place total ETH futures and perpetuals open interest between $20B and more than $32B across over 20 exchanges, including Binance and Bybit. If the larger figures are closer to the truth, the options share of the pie would look even thinner than the headline ratio suggests. The options side of the market is also highly concentrated. Most of t...