stable coins

Story: Bitcoin Futures See Crypto Collateral Plummet to Just 12% as Stablecoins Rise

By Julie Binoche

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Stablecoin Collateral Takes Over. The numbers back it up. Crypto-margined positions have gone from near-total dominance to a sliver…

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$570 Million Wiped Out in One Day. Bitcoin's price moved from around $57,000 back up to nearly $79,175 recently, a gain of roughly 1.

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What the Collateral Shift Actually Means. The broader derivatives market is maturing. That's clear.

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Only 12% left. That's how much of Bitcoin futures open interest is still backed by crypto itself, per Glassnode data.

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Back in 2019 and 2020, traders had pretty much one option: put up Bitcoin as margin. You wanted to go long or short, you posted BTC.

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The numbers back it up. Crypto-margined positions have gone from near-total dominance to a sliver — 12% of total open interest across all exchanges.

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Institutions, broadly speaking, don't love holding crypto as collateral. They want predictability on the margin side even if the trade itself is volatile.

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Not that stablecoin margins make everything safe. Far from it.

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More context: Bitcoin ETFs Surge with $2.26 Billion in Inflows Over Six Consecutive Sessions

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Within 24 hours, $570.08 million in positions got liquidated. Short positions took the bigger hit — $329.60 million gone — against $240.48 million in longs.

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So the collateral type changed. The behavior didn't, really.

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Leverage is still leverage. Traders are still stacking it on, still getting caught when the market moves against them.

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The broader derivatives market is maturing. That's clear. The move toward stablecoin collateral is one piece of that — alongside ETF inflows, institutional participation, and…

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More context: Cypher Tank Launches Bigger Competition in Lugano with $300,000 for Bitcoin Innovators

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But Bitcoin's price swings aren't going anywhere. The market structure is cleaner, maybe. The volatility isn't.

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