AAVE OI Hits $373.1M as Shorts Face a $711.4K Liquidation Wave
Aave is trading at $166.11 with total open interest near $373.1M, up 1.3% over 24 hours, but the risk is not a clean bullish expansion. Short liquidations reached $711.4K against $313.5K for longs, while the latest account data shows 65.7% of traders long. That combination suggests a squeeze has already removed part of the short side without fully clearing leverage from the market.
Recent coverage has focused on Aave’s revenue sharing, price targets and the wider legal uncertainty around decentralized finance, but the derivatives tape is giving the more immediate signal: rising OI, strong long participation and a funding market that is sharply divided by venue.
OI is rising, but leadership is uneven
Binance holds the largest reported share at 19.8%, with $74.0M of AAVE OI, yet its position declined 3.8% over 24 hours. Bybit is close behind at 18.6% and $69.4M, also down 0.5%. The contrast is Bitget, where $34.1M represents 9.1% of total OI after a 7.2% daily increase. Gate is the clearest outlier: its $27.3M share is only 7.3%, but OI jumped 173.0% in 24 hours and 16.2% over the latest four-hour window.
OKX contributes a smaller 5.3% share, or $19.9M, with daily OI up 0.6% and four-hour OI up 13.1%. The market-wide gain therefore appears concentrated in newer or smaller pockets rather than led by the two biggest books. That matters for an OI-purge setup: a rapid increase at Gate and a sharp four-hour rise at OKX can provide fuel for a move, but they can also unwind quickly if price fails to extend beyond the current $166.11 area.
Funding shows no unified long conviction
Funding rates are unusually fragmented. Binance is mildly positive at 0.000411%, while Bybit is much firmer at 0.006729% and Gate is positive at 0.0053%. Bitget and Aster both show 0.01%, and Coinbase is highest among the listed positive venues at 0.0255%. In contrast, OKX is negative at -0.007345%, while CoinEx is deeply negative at -0.429483% and KuCoin is at -0.0014%.
The split weakens the case for a synchronized long carry trade. Longs are paying on several major venues, but traders on OKX and some smaller platforms are positioned for downside or receiving funding. This is consistent with a market where leverage is being redistributed rather than simply added in one direction.
Liquidations favor a short squeeze, not a settled trend
The liquidation windows are decisively skewed toward shorts. In the latest four hours, $568.3K of shorts were liquidated versus just $3.8K of longs. Over 12 hours, short liquidations reached $569.3K against $19.9K for longs; across 24 hours, the split was $711.4K shorts versus $313.5K longs. The largest individual events were two Hyperliquid short liquidations worth $168.2K and $154.5K near $166.46 and $166.14. A Binance long liquidation worth $103.4K occurred near $160.77, showing that downside risk has not disappeared.
The positioning split adds another warning. Account longs are 65.7% overall, while taker longs are only 58.6%. On Binance, accounts are 64.6% long and takers 65.7% long; Gate is more extreme, with 53.2% of accounts long but 85.3% of taker flow long. Passive accounts and aggressive execution are therefore not fully aligned, especially on the venue with the fastest OI growth.
Verdict: AAVE’s immediate bias remains squeeze-positive above $166.11, but the $373.1M OI base is vulnerable to a purge if the price loses that level after short liquidations fade. A sustained move above the $166.46 liquidation zone with OI holding near $373.1M would validate continuation; a break below $160.77, the recorded Binance long-liquidation level, would invalidate the bullish squeeze view and signal that crowded accounts are finally being forced out. Data as of 13:11 Beijing time on Oct 1, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.