HBAR OI Purge: $134.3M Open Interest Faces a 9.9% Daily Reset
Hedera derivatives are showing a clear deleveraging event: HBAR trades at $0.08986 after a 7.2% decline, while aggregate open interest has dropped 9.9% in 24 hours to $134.3M. The liquidation imbalance is even sharper, with $770.1K in long positions erased against only $5.3K in shorts over the same window. That combination points to a long-side open interest purge rather than a balanced reset.
Separately, IBM is working with The Hashgraph Group on an enterprise identity initiative built around Hedera-based infrastructure. That fundamental context may support the longer-term narrative, but it has not prevented the current derivatives flush.
Binance and Bybit carry the purge
The concentration of exposure makes the decline more meaningful. Binance holds $30.4M of HBAR open interest, or 22.6% of the tracked total, after a 13.2% daily contraction. Bybit is close behind at $27.9M and 20.8% of the total, with open interest down 12.5%. Bitget contributes another $16.4M, representing 12.2%, after a 11.0% decline. Together, these venues account for the main visible center of leverage, and all three have also contracted over the latest four-hour reading: Binance is down 1.8%, Bybit 3.3%, and Bitget 3.1%.
OKX is smaller at $6.4M, or 4.8% of total open interest, but its four-hour reduction is the steepest among the major listed venues at 5.7%. The only notable counter-move is Gate, where $2.6M of open interest represents 1.9% and has risen 2.1% over four hours. That isolated increase is not yet broad enough to offset the larger reductions across Binance, Bybit and Bitget. The one-hour aggregate change has turned positive at 1.2%, which may indicate fresh positioning after the purge, but it is still modest relative to the daily contraction.
Funding stays positive while longs absorb losses
The funding rate map shows that leverage has not fully flipped bearish. Binance is charging longs 0.0073%, while Bitget and Gate are each at 0.0100%. MEXC is at 0.0074%, and LBank is at 0.0074%. In contrast, Bybit is negative at -0.0063%, Bitfinex is at -0.0148%, and dYdX is positive at 0.0130%, the highest listed reading. This dispersion suggests that the liquidation event is being absorbed unevenly across venues rather than through a uniform short bias.
The positioning split reinforces that interpretation. Aggregate accounts are 66.9% long, while active taker positioning is only 49.3% long. Binance's account split is similarly long-heavy at 62.0% long versus 38.1% short, with a long-to-short ratio of 1.6. The gap between passive account positioning and active flow implies that many traders remain structurally long, even as aggressive execution is close to balanced. That is consistent with forced long exits driving the recent damage.
Liquidations define the immediate risk
The four-hour liquidation window recorded $48.7K in long liquidations against $2.6K in shorts, for a $51.3K total across 43 events. Over 12 hours, long liquidations reached $58.0K while shorts accounted for $4.9K. The 24-hour picture is much more extreme: $770.1K in longs versus $5.3K in shorts, totaling $775.4K across 255 events. No liquidations were recorded in the latest one-hour window, suggesting the forced unwind has paused temporarily rather than proving that downside pressure has ended.
Verdict: The key recovery test is HBAR holding $0.08986 while aggregate open interest rebuilds above $134.3M without another long-liquidation surge. A break below $0.08986 accompanied by renewed long liquidations would favor another leg of the purge; the bearish view is invalidated if price reclaims $0.08986 and open interest expands beyond $134.3M with the account-versus-taker gap narrowing. Data as of 19:05 Beijing time on Sep 24, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.