DOGE$0.1069 traders are taking risks, sending the token’s price sharply higher, even as the rally in market leader bitcoin BTC$76,050.07 stalls.

It’s evident in the futures market where open interest in DOGE futures has risen to 15.36 billion tokens, the highest level this year, according to Coinglass. Open interest (OI) refers to the number of active contracts at any given time.

The upswing in open interest suggests more traders are chasing leveraged directional plays, a sign of strong risk sentiment in the market.

DOGE’s price has climbed nearly 10% over the past week, briefly pushing above 11 cents before settling near $0.105 as of writing, according to data source CoinDesk. Bitcoin, meanwhile, has pulled back below $76,000 after trading above $79,000 earlier this week.

The combination of rising spot price and futures OI suggests that new money is entering the market rather than old positions being closed. The pattern is said to reinforce the prevailing market trend, which is bullish, in DOGE’s case. However, it also leaves the market more exposed to sharp liquidations if momentum reverses.

Binance accounted for nearly 3.99 billion DOGE in open interest, followed by Bitget, Bybit, and OKX, each with more than 1 billion DOGE, data shows. Hyperliquid, MEXC, WhiteBIT, and KuCoin also showed sizable positions, pointing to a move not confined to a single venue.

DOGE’s rally comes after weeks of sideways trading and a broader return of speculative interest across majors earlier in the week.

Market observers such as Jordan Jefferson, founder of DogeOS and MyDoge, said in a message to CoinDesk that several catalysts may be contributing to demand for the token.

“DOGE’s price move isn’t tied to a single news event,” Jefferson said. “Over the past week, large holders added more than 500 million DOGE. 21Shares listed a physically backed ETP on Xetra, and Grayscale flows turned positive after nine straight days of outflows. On-chain activity is also up, with active addresses rising 28%.”

Those flows matter because DOGE’s market structure tends to respond quickly when spot accumulation, derivatives leverage, and retail narratives align.

The token has historically traded less like a payments asset and more like an attention-driven macro meme, where positioning can accelerate fast once traders believe a familiar catalyst is back in play.

The X payments angle remains a swing factor, but the least concrete part of the DOGE trade. Elon Musk has said that X Money will launch as a payments product with peer-to-peer transfers, bank deposits, a debit card and cashback rewards through X Payments, a licensed subsidiary partnered with Visa.

Nothing in the announced product indicates support for dogecoin or any crypto functionality. Still, DOGE traders could be reacting to the payments-related developments at Musk-owned companies, possibly in hopes that the token could eventually be folded into X’s financial stack. This hope comes from Musk’s vocal support for dogecoin since at least 2021. At one point, he said the token could make DeFi more accessible to everyone.

For now, traders are treating DOGE as if something bigger is building, and the futures market is where that conviction is showing first.