Aptos Derivatives: 28.3% Annualized Backwardation Meets $114.6M OI
Aptos derivatives are sending a conflicted signal: price is $0.7649 after a 4.5% decline, while aggregate open interest is $114.6M and up 2.1% over 24 hours. The key tell is the basis, which sits at -0.1% and translates to -28.3% annualized. That is a clear backwardation regime, suggesting futures traders are paying a premium for downside protection or are unwilling to carry bullish exposure through the current weakness.
Separately, Aptos-related coverage points to native Tether USDT support on Taiwan's MAX exchange for local-currency conversions.
OI is rising, but leaders are cutting risk
The aggregate figure hides a meaningful redistribution. Binance holds the largest share at 23.5%, or $26.9M, yet its open interest fell 3.1% over 24 hours. Bybit is close behind with 20.7%, or $23.7M, and declined 4.0%. Bitget accounts for 6.9% and dropped 6.3%. Together, those three major venues show contraction in the most established pockets of APT leverage.
Gate is the exception. Its $6.1M position represents 5.4% of the tracked total, but its open interest jumped 207.1% over 24 hours and 8.5% over four hours. OKX, at 5.2% share and $5.9M, added 8.7% over 24 hours while still slipping 0.9% over four hours. The result is not broad-based conviction; it is a rotation of exposure toward smaller venues while the two biggest books shed risk.
Funding remains uneven against backwardation
The funding rate map reinforces the split. Binance, OKX, Gate and Bitget are all positive, while Bybit, Bitfinex and Coinbase are negative. CoinEx is the outlier on the positive side at 0.2%, whereas Coinbase is the most negative at -0.0242%. Bybit is also negative at -0.009873%, despite carrying 20.7% of open interest.
This cross-venue divergence matters because the headline average funding rate is positive, but the largest books do not agree on who should pay. Positive funding on several venues can indicate that long positions are still crowded there, yet the negative basis says that this demand has not translated into a durable futures premium. In practice, the market is paying to maintain some long exposure while simultaneously pricing a discount for forward contracts overall.
Long-heavy accounts meet short-heavy takers
The positioning data shows another layer of fragility. The aggregate account split is 64.0% long, but active takers are only 46.1% long. On Binance, the account reading is narrower at 55.3% long versus 44.7% short. That gap implies many accounts remain positioned for a bounce, while aggressive market orders lean short or are selling into rebounds. The long/short ratio therefore looks bullish at the account level but defensive at the execution level.
The liquidation structure supports that interpretation. Long liquidations reached $194.2K over 24 hours against $17.1K in shorts, with $211.3K total. The imbalance is even cleaner in shorter windows: $22.5K of longs and no shorts were liquidated over four hours, while the one-hour window recorded $6.8K of long liquidations and no shorts. Over 12 hours, long liquidations were $22.7K versus $4.2K for shorts. This is not a short squeeze; it is a long-side reset occurring while many accounts still remain net long.
Verdict: The immediate bias remains bearish-to-neutral while APT trades at $0.7649 and total open interest sits near $114.6M. The most important confirmation would be further long liquidations alongside continued contraction at Binance's $26.9M and Bybit's $23.7M books. The view is invalidated if APT holds above $0.7649, open interest expands beyond $114.6M, and the basis turns positive, showing that new leverage is arriving with genuine futures demand rather than defensive positioning. Data as of 18:05 Beijing time on Oct 1, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.