Perpetual Futures Open Interest Rose 12.8% Across 15 Tracked Venues, Separate from Broader $68bn-$140bn Market Estimates

Divide the $23.9bn of decentralized perpetual open interest by the 13 to 14 percent share the same report assigns it. The implied market is $183.85bn at the low end of the share and $170.71bn at the high end ^[1]. Both overshoot the $140.23bn top of the range the report itself gives, by $43.62bn and $30.48bn ^[7]. Measured against the $68.39bn snapshot of 25 venues, that same $23.9bn is 34.95% of the market ^[2]. The $23.9bn is described as early-September data, so part of the gap could be timing ^[7].

The 12.8% growth figure covers 15 venues; the $68.39bn covers 25, and the higher measure is described only as broader ^[1][3]. Apply the weekly rate to each published base and the week added $8.75bn of notional on one and $17.95bn on the other, a spread of $9.20bn ^[4]. That spread is 38.5% of all perpetual DEX open interest ^[5]. The venue sets do not match.

Open interest counts notional. Cryptobriefing says different providers track different exchange sets, and that the definition shifts depending on whether notional value, coin-margined contracts or stablecoin-margined positions are being counted ^[4]. Cryptobriefing did not publish an inflow figure or a collateral figure ^[5]. A 12.8% rise in notional is consistent with new money at unchanged leverage and with the same money behind larger positions. Cryptobriefing takes the second: it wrote that the pace of growth "suggests traders aren't waiting for fresh capital to flow in" ^[9].

Two other readings fit. Positions can migrate onto the 15 tracked venues from venues that go uncounted, lifting the sample without adding exposure anywhere. The report says Hyperliquid has taken substantial share of both volume and open interest ^[10]. Turnover is the other. The $593bn of 30-day volume against $23.9bn of open positions is 24.8 turns a month, roughly $19.77bn a day, or 0.83 times the standing book daily ^[6]. A week-over-week change in that book covers a fraction of the positions opened and closed inside it.

I'd put low confidence on the leverage-cascade reading. The only dated, venue-counted number in the record is 12.8% across 15 venues for September 13 to 19 ^[1]. The stock it sits on differs by 2.05 times, or $71.84bn, between two published measures ^[3]. A collateral series for the same seven days would settle it. Flat exchange margin against a 12.8% rise in notional is the condition the report describes as a market getting more leveraged without necessarily getting deeper ^[11]. Collateral up by roughly the same 12.8% makes the week deposits at unchanged leverage.