BCH Jumps 6.4% to $259.8: OI +6.2%, Funding Flat

BCH rally joins a broad short squeeze

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) climbed to $259.8 in the last 24 hours, a 6.4% gain that puts it near the top of the large-cap board. The move came as the whole market ripped higher after BTC pushed back above $81,000 and wiped out $526.9M in short positions. BCH tagged a high of $260.9 on both Binance and OKX, after trading as low as $241.8 yesterday, so buyers absorbed a roughly 8% intraday swing without much trouble.

Open interest rises while funding stays cold

Open interest across BCH perpetual venues rose 6.2% to $269M, which means fresh money came in with the rally rather than a pure short-cover. Binance still holds the largest share at 35.4%, but MEXC has quietly become the second-biggest venue at 17.45%, ahead of Bybit's 13.3% and OKX's 9.1%. The standout detail is funding: the volume-weighted rate sits near 0.01% on Binance, OKX, Bybit and Bitget, so longs are not paying up for the move. That pattern usually means the rally is not yet crowded.

What the flat funding tells you

When price rises and open interest rises but funding stays flat, the squeeze is doing the heavy lifting. Shorts have been forced to close into strength, and their buying feeds the next leg up. The risk is on the flip side: if new longs pile in at these levels while funding remains subdued, a stall around the $260 to $265 zone could leave late entries exposed. The realized move is big relative to this coin's recent range, and BCH has a history of violent two-way swings once momentum slows.

Where the leverage sits now

Perpetual positioning is still reasonably balanced. Hyperliquid shed 8.6% of its book in a day, while Coinbase's tiny pool jumped 38.9%, mostly noise at the margin. The meaningful signal is concentration: Binance plus MEXC now control over half of total open interest, so liquidation cascades, when they come, will show up fastest on those two order books. For traders watching entries, the $245 to $250 zone is the first support to hold if the squeeze stalls, with the 24h low at $241.8 as the line in the sand.

Data as of 05:08 Beijing time, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit, Hyperliquid, Gate, Bitget, MEXC and other major venues.