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Video breakdown
Phil walks through the open interest review.
Open interest · Hyperliquid · Aster · Variational · Lighter · Grvt
Open interest review: Hyperliquid holds the largest share of outstanding exposure
Open interest is the value of derivatives positions still open, not how much was traded. About $59 of every $100 sits on Hyperliquid. That makes one venue matter far more than the rest for this market.
DefiLlama open interest
Aggregate $14.14bn
| Venue | Open interest | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Hyperliquid | $8.33bn | 58.9% |
| Aster | $1.30bn | 9.2% |
| Variational | $1.02bn | 7.2% |
| Lighter | $819m | 5.8% |
| Grvt | $454m | 3.2% |
TL;DR
- What this measures: the total value of perp positions that are still open right now. Think of it as exposure outstanding, not trading activity and not cash deposited.
- Hyperliquid holds $8.33bn, about 58.9% of the $14.14bn total. That's 2.3× the next four venues combined.
- The five listed venues hold 84.3%. Aster ranks #2 here but only #4 by trading volume.
- Open interest can't tell you if traders are bullish, and it can rise just because prices rose. Real risk depends on leverage, collateral and liquidation levels, which this table doesn't show.
Dashboard 01
Open interest at a glance
DefiLlama open interest · 28 Aug 2026 · shares derived
Hyperliquid
$8.33bn#1
58.9% of the aggregateDisplayed aggregate
$14.14bn
All covered venuesFive listed venues
84.3%
$11.92bnHyperliquid vs next four
2.3×
$8.33bn vs $3.60bnAster
$1.30bn
#2 · 9.2%Variational
$1.02bn
#3 · 7.2%Lighter + Grvt
$1.27bn
9.0% combinedAll other venues
$2.22bn
15.7% · derived remainder01 / Concentration
One venue holds most of the exposure
A perp position stays "open" until the trader closes it. Open interest adds up the dollar value of all those open positions. Volume tells you how busy a venue was today; open interest tells you how much exposure is sitting there right now.
By that measure the market is lopsided. Hyperliquid holds about 58.9% of the $14.14bn total, more than twice the next four venues combined. The five listed venues together hold 84.3%; the remaining 15.7% is spread across other venues the provider covers.
Dashboard 02
Open interest by venue
DefiLlama open interest · USD · "Other venues" = aggregate minus the five listed
Dashboard 03
Share of the $14.14bn aggregate
Venue value ÷ displayed aggregate · hover for values
HyperliquidAsterVariationalLighterGrvtOther venues
Lighter 5.8% · Grvt 3.2%.
Dashboard 04
How concentrated is it?
Derived from the displayed figures
Hyperliquid vs everyone else
Next four = Aster, Variational, Lighter, Grvt.
02 / Exposure vs activity
Where positions sit isn't where trading happens
The order here differs from the volume ranking. Aster is #2 by open interest but #4 by reported volume. Variational and Lighter rank higher on volume than on open interest. Busy trading and large outstanding positions don't always go together.
That matters for monitoring. A problem at a venue holding a large share of open positions could matter more to this market than a problem at a venue with high volume but few positions left open. That's a reason to watch closely, not an estimate of any loss.
Dashboard 05
Rank by open interest vs rank by volume
Ranks only · volume from the separate perp-volume retrieval, 28 Aug 2026 · not a combined risk model
The two pages were read at different times, so only ranks are compared. No volume-to-open-interest ratios are calculated.
03 / Interpretation
What open interest can't tell you
It isn't a sentiment gauge. Every open contract has someone long and someone short. Rising open interest means more positions, not more bulls. Knowing which side traders favour needs account-level positions and funding rates.
It moves with prices. Open interest is measured in dollars. If the asset price rises 10%, existing positions are worth 10% more and open interest goes up, even if nobody opened a new trade. Contract counts help separate the two.
Size isn't risk. Whether a price move triggers forced selling depends on leverage, collateral, how concentrated margin is, where liquidation prices sit and how much can actually be traded. None of that is in this table.
Dashboard 06
Two common misreadings
Illustrative · hypothetical numbers
"Open interest is up, so traders are bullish"
"Open interest is up, so new money came in"
Same 100 contracts. Price up 10%, dollar open interest up 10%.
Dashboard 07
What actually decides liquidation risk
None of these can be read from the ranking
Leverage
How much exposure per dollar of margin.
Not shownCollateral
What backs the positions, and how volatile it is.
Not shownLiquidation levels
Where forced closes cluster.
Not shownExecutable liquidity
Can the market absorb forced selling?
Not shownDashboard 08
Open interest is not…
Keeping metrics apart
Open interest
● MeasuredDollar value of positions still open. This review.
Trading volume
◐ Different metricHow much changed hands in a period (see the perp volume review).
Deposits / TVL
◐ Different metricCash actually posted. Leverage makes this smaller than open interest.
Expected losses
✕ Not measuredNeeds leverage, collateral and liquidation data.
Dashboard 09
Evidence scorecard
What the snapshot supports today
Hyperliquid holds the most open interest
● Established$8.33bn, 58.9% of the aggregate.
Five venues hold most of the covered exposure
● Established84.3% combined.
Open-interest and volume rankings differ
◐ DerivedAster #2 vs #4; separate retrievals.
Traders are bullish
✕ Not establishedEvery long has a short.
New money is flowing in
✕ Not establishedCould be price changes alone.
A liquidation cascade is likely
✕ Not supportedNo leverage or liquidation data.
04 / DashMode's assessment
Concentrated exposure, unknown risk
The clearest finding is concentration: most of the covered exposure sits on one venue. That makes Hyperliquid the place to watch first. What the snapshot can't say is how risky that exposure is, which direction it leans, or whether it grew because of new positions or higher prices.
Next: track contract counts alongside dollar values, and add leverage, collateral and liquidation data for the largest venues.
Dashboard 10
DashMode's open-interest method
For a recurring exposure report
One pageShares from the same page's aggregate.
Keep conventionsLong/short counting as the provider defines it.
Count contractsSeparate price moves from new positions.
Add risk inputsLeverage, collateral, liquidation levels.
Don't blend snapshotsNo mixing of separate retrievals into a risk model.
Sources
Methodology and limits. Shares divide displayed venue values by the displayed $14.141bn aggregate on the same DefiLlama open-interest page, retrieved 28 Aug 2026. "Other venues" is the aggregate minus the five listed. The provider's counting conventions, including treatment of long and short sides, are preserved. Open interest is outstanding notional exposure, not deposited cash or TVL. Dashboard 05 compares ranks only with the separate perp-volume retrieval; no figures from the two pages are combined. Dashboard 06 is illustrative. Exact upstream cutoffs were unavailable. Dated research, not a live feed. Not investment advice.