BTC Hits $80K Mark: Shorts Paid 90% of Hour, HL OI +22.6%
BTC Tests the $80K Line and Shorts Keep Getting Squeezed
Bitcoin futures pushed into the $80,000 area for the first time in this leg, with BTC trading at $79,538 on Binance and $79,540 on OKX as of late Monday Beijing time, up 3.1% over 24 hours. The 24h range was $76,649 to $79,811, so the move is not a slow grind; it is a fast reclaim of the level that trapped leveraged shorts below $78K for the past two days.
Perp liquidations confirm the squeeze. In the last hour, $45.4 million was wiped out across major exchanges, and shorts paid $41.0 million of that, or 90.4%. Over the full 24h window, total liquidations reached $372.3 million with shorts responsible for $239.2 million, about 64%. The largest single wipe on Binance was a $2.23 million BTC short liquidated at $80,008.4, meaning the stop cluster just above $80K got hit as spot pierced the level.
Hyperliquid OI Jumps 22.6%: This Is New Leverage, Not Just Covering
The more interesting signal is open interest. BTC total OI across 23 venues now sits at $46.25 billion, up 4.29% in 24 hours. Hyperliquid is the outlier: its BTC OI surged 22.56% to $3.41 billion, and even in the last four hours it added 17.6%. Binance added 6.11% to $8.66 billion, Gate rose 2.5% to $4.67 billion, and CME holds steady at $8.96 billion.
A short squeeze alone would normally shrink OI as positions get closed. OI growing this fast on Hyperliquid while price breaks higher points to fresh longs opening on the move, not just shorts covering. When both price and OI rise together, the market is adding leverage in the direction of the trend, which can extend the move but also builds the fuel for the next violent reset.
Funding Turns Positive Across the Board
Funding rates flipped back to positive after the flush earlier in the week. Binance, OKX and Bybit all show 0.01% for BTC per funding interval, Hyperliquid is at 0.0032%, and the volume-weighted average across 26 venues is 0.0066%. Two weeks ago, the same funding curve was deep negative during the capitulation; now longs are paying again, which is the standard signature of a recovered market structure.
The rates are still low in absolute terms. 0.01% per 8-hour interval annualizes to roughly 11%, so positioning is warm but nowhere near the overheated levels seen at local tops. There is room for funding to rise before the market is crowded.
What to Watch: The 80K Stop Cluster and ETH's Role
ETH is moving with BTC, up 3.4% to $2,516 on both Binance and OKX, with its 24h high at $2,532. The Binance liquidation list this cycle is dominated by ETH shorts, topped by a $6.91 million short at $2,482.9. If BTC clears $80K and holds, the next obvious magnet is the short-heavy zone above $80,500, where leverage from the past three days of failed bounces is concentrated.
The setup has a clear fork. A push through $80K backed by rising OI and positive funding means the trend is intact and dip-buyers stay active. If OI starts falling while price stalls at $80K, that would signal the squeeze is spent and the leverage added today becomes tomorrow's supply. Either way, the level that decides it is the stop cluster just above $80,000.
Data as of 23:15 Beijing time, August 24, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit, Hyperliquid, Gate, Bitget and other major venues.