Bitcoin futures open interest is the total value of outstanding contracts that have not been settled on derivatives exchanges. It reflects the level of trading activity and interest in the market.

On Sep. 18, 2023, the bitcoin futures open interest surged by $1 billion, reaching $12.1 billion, while the bitcoin price also increased by 3.4%, reaching $27,430, the highest point in over two weeks.

Some analysts speculated that this was due to manipulation or hedging by whales who were anticipating the unsealing of Binance’s court filings related to the SEC’s investigation of its alleged unregistered securities operations and other allegations.

It is possible that the SEC's investigation into Binance and BNB had some impact on the bitcoin futures open interest jump, but there are many other variables that affect the supply and demand of bitcoin futures contracts, such as market sentiment, volatility, liquidity, leverage, and arbitrage opportunities. Therefore, it is difficult to establish a direct causal relationship between the SEC's probe and the open interest surge. However, some traders may have used bitcoin futures as a way to hedge their exposure to BNB or other crypto assets that could be affected by the SEC's actions.

 Alternatively, some speculators may have taken advantage of the increased uncertainty and volatility in the crypto market to make bets on the future price movements of bitcoin.