COTI +22% to $0.0181: OI Jumps 29%, Funding Still Negative

COTI breaks higher as perp open interest climbs 29%

COTI, the privacy-focused layer-2 network token, pushed to $0.0181 on Binance in the last session, up 21.6% over 24 hours. The move took out the $0.01937 intraday high before settling back, and it came with a real leverage bid behind it: total perp open interest across venues rose 29% to $31.9 million, per live exchange data.

That combination matters. A rally with open interest shrinking is often short covering that runs out of fuel. This one did the opposite. Price and OI moved together, which points to new positioning rather than a one-way squeeze unwind.

Binance leads the OI build with a 40% jump

Binance now holds 27.5% of COTI perp open interest at $8.79 million, up 40.2% in 24 hours and another 16.8% in the last four. Bybit added 20.3% to $5.35 million, Bitget 20.6% to $4.11 million, and KuCoin carries $4.34 million with a slower 8.7% gain. The 24-hour high of $0.01937 and low of $0.01469 frame a wide 24% range, so the funding and OI data do the work of telling you whether this is chase or conviction.

Volume supports the move. Binance alone traded $50.5 million worth of COTI over the day, with aggregate spot and perp volume above $70 million, a meaningful pickup for a token that usually sits in lower-tier attention.

Funding stays negative while shorts pay up

The interesting part is funding. Perp funding on Binance sits at -0.16% per period, Bybit at -0.26%, Bitget -0.13%, and the open-interest-weighted average across venues is -0.17%. Negative funding means short holders are the ones paying longs to keep positions open. With the price up 22%, those shorts are underwater and still paying.

That is the squeeze setup in raw form: leverage is being added from the long side while the short book refuses to close. It also carries a warning. A crowded negative-funding rally can reverse hard if spot buyers step away, because the same shorts that fueled the move will close into weakness and accelerate it.

What to watch next

The level to track is the $0.01937 high. A clean break with OI still climbing would signal the next leg has real backing. If funding flips positive above 0.01%, the easy squeeze money is already made and chasing risk rises. If OI starts bleeding while price stalls, expect the range to tighten back toward $0.016-$0.017.

For token holders the read is simple: the market is paying you to be long right now, but the bill comes due the moment momentum fades. Watch funding and OI together, not price alone.

Data as of 18:55 Beijing time on September 6, covering Binance, Bybit, Bitget, Gate, KuCoin, MEXC and other major venues; COTI is not listed on OKX, so Binance serves as the primary price benchmark.