Summary
- Dogecoins price has slumped to about 7 cents, down nearly 70% over the past year, even as leveraged futures bets on the token have surged.
- Open interest in DOGE futures has climbed to about $1.21 billion, with speculative positions in coin terms now close to October 2025 levels despite the much lower price.
- Long positions heavily outnumber shorts on major exchanges like Binance and OKX, raising the risk of forced liquidations and additional selling if prices fall further.
Dogecoin traders are putting more money behind leveraged bets even as DOGE struggles near 7 cents, creating a growing mismatch between weak prices and rising risk-taking in the futures market.
Open interest, the value of futures contracts still outstanding, has climbed to about $1.21 billion from roughly $930 million in late June, according to CoinGlass. DOGE fell almost 3% over the past 24 hours and is down nearly 70% over the past year.
The scale of the speculation is easier to see when measured in coins rather than dollars.
Open interest has climbed back to 17.18 billion DOGE, just below the 17.78 billion seen in October 2025, even though DOGE now trades around 7 cents versus 25 cents then. Speculative positioning has almost fully rebuilt in coin terms even though each of those coins is worth less than a third of what it was.
Speculation on dogecoin is back to October levels. The price is not. (Shaurya Malwa/CoinDesk)
Futures let traders borrow to take a bigger position than their money would otherwise buy. Open interest rising means new leverage is entering the market, though on its own it says nothing about which way those traders are betting.