HBAR Open Interest Climbs 6.0% as Long Liquidations Reach $161.3K

The Hedera derivatives market is carrying $124.5M in open interest, up 6.0% over 24 hours, while HBAR trades at $0.0802. That combination points to fresh leverage entering the market rather than a broad retreat, but the positioning is becoming uneven: the largest venues are not adding risk in the same direction. A recent market commentary also suggests that HBAR may be approaching a larger directional move, although the derivatives tape currently shows more immediate evidence of crowded longs than a clean breakout.

OI growth is concentrated outside Binance

Binance remains the largest reported venue with $27.4M of HBAR open interest and a 22.0% share, yet its position fell 3.8% over 24 hours. Bybit holds $25.4M, or 20.4% of the market, and added 3.7%, making it the strongest large-venue contributor to the aggregate increase. Bitget accounts for $14.0M, or 11.3%, but declined 1.3%, while OKX carries $6.2M, or 5.0%, after falling 1.7%.

This split matters. The headline 6.0% increase in total OI is being supported by Bybit and smaller venues rather than a synchronized expansion across the four most visible exchanges. The one-hour change is already negative at 1.9%, so the latest flow has started to cool even though the 24-hour structure remains net positive. A continuation signal would therefore require OI to hold near $124.5M while Binance stops contracting and Bybit preserves its gain.

Funding is positive, but dispersion is wide

Funding is broadly positive on the main derivatives venues, with Binance, Bybit and Bitget each at 0.0% after rounding to one decimal place. Gate is also positive at 0.0%, while Coinbase, Kraken and KuCoin are negative at 0.0% after rounding. The meaningful outliers are dYdX at 0.2%, CoinEx at 0.0% and Lighter at -0.0%, showing that the cost of holding long exposure is not uniform across the market.

The practical takeaway is that leverage is leaning long, but the average rate is not yet a universal stress signal. The higher positive rate on dYdX suggests localized demand for long exposure, whereas negative readings on several venues show that hedging or short demand remains active elsewhere. This venue dispersion weakens the case for treating the OI increase as a single, market-wide bullish bet.

Liquidations expose the long-side crowd

HBAR liquidations totaled $241.0K over 24 hours: $161.3K from longs versus $79.7K from shorts. The imbalance was already visible in the shorter windows. Over 12 hours, long liquidations reached $126.6K compared with $28.8K shorts; over 4 hours, the split was $69.4K against $4.5K. Even the latest hour recorded $46.1K in long liquidations versus $4.5K in shorts.

Account data still looks bullish: Binance accounts are 59.0% long, OKX 61.8%, Bybit 75.3% and Gate 60.4%. But Binance takers are 56.4% short against 43.6% long, producing a clear conflict between passive account positioning and active execution. Long liquidation dominance plus short taker flow suggests that aggressive traders are selling into a market where many accounts remain positioned for upside.

Verdict: The near-term bias is fragile bullish-to-neutral while HBAR holds $0.08017 and aggregate OI remains around $124.5M. OI growth led by Bybit, combined with account-level long exposure, can support another upside attempt, but the view is invalidated if price breaks below $0.08017 while OI retreats materially from $124.5M; that would convert leverage expansion into long unwinding. Data as of 19:12 Beijing time on Sep 20, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.