Injective OI Surges 23.6% as Binance Leads With 25.03% Share
Injective is trading at $7.579 after a 17.0% daily advance, while open interest has expanded 23.6% to roughly $153.0M. That combination makes INJ a clear derivatives hotspot, but the positioning underneath the move is less straightforward than the headline rally: accounts are net long, whereas the most aggressive recent trades lean heavily short.
A recent market note describes the latest advance as testing whether momentum can extend or stall, adding to the market’s focus on the current price area.
Binance sets the pace for the OI expansion
The open-interest increase is broad, but Binance is the main engine. It holds $38.3M, or 25.0% of tracked INJ OI, after a 38.1% 24-hour increase. Bybit is the second-largest listed position pool at $20.8M and 13.6% share, with OI up 32.3%. Bitget accounts for $13.8M, or 9.0%, after a 19.6% rise. Together, these venues show that the surge is not isolated to one exchange.
The shorter-term data adds an important qualification. Binance OI rose 3.2% over the latest four-hour window, Bybit gained 2.6%, and Bitget increased 2.4%. OKX, however, slipped 1.2% over the same period despite a 20.1% daily increase. This suggests the broader build-up remains intact, while participation is already rotating between venues rather than accelerating uniformly.
Funding is positive, but not uniformly crowded
Current funding rates are mostly close to 0.0% when rounded to one decimal place. Binance, Bybit, OKX and Bitget each show 0.0%, while CoinEx stands out at 0.1%. Crypto.com is also above the common cluster at 0.0% after rounding, and Paradex is slightly negative at -0.0%. The exchange spread therefore points to a generally positive carry environment without a similarly extreme premium across the largest venues.
That matters because the average funding reading is positive, but the positioning signal is not simply a case of everyone chasing longs. Account data shows Binance at 65.0% long and 35.0% short, Bybit at 62.0% long and 38.1% short, and Gate at 58.3% long and 41.8% short. Yet taker flow is sharply different: Binance takers are 33.9% long versus 66.1% short, while Gate takers are only 12.3% long against 87.7% short. Passive account positioning is optimistic, but active execution is selling into the move.
Short liquidations confirm the squeeze component
Liquidation data supports a rally that has pressured shorts. Over 24 hours, short liquidations reached $483.3K against $172.7K for longs, out of a $656.0K total. The same pattern appears over 12 hours, with $423.2K in short liquidations versus $135.8K in long liquidations. Over four hours, short liquidations were $26.9K compared with $18.3K for longs, although the most recent hour reversed briefly, showing $5.2K of long liquidations against $1.8K of short liquidations.
The combination is a classic tension point: rising OI and short liquidations can fuel continuation, but heavy sell-side taker flow means fresh buyers are not yet controlling every impulse. If price keeps advancing while OI remains elevated, the squeeze narrative stays active. If price stalls and OI begins to unwind, the build-up can turn into crowded-risk distribution.
Verdict: The key reference is $7.579 with OI near $153.0M. Holding above $7.579 while OI stays at or above $153.0M would preserve the upside squeeze setup; a move below $7.579 accompanied by OI falling under $153.0M would invalidate that view and signal that leverage is leaving rather than powering continuation. Data as of 21:05 Beijing time on Sep 19, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.