Morpho OI Surges 27.3% as Binance Holds 29.8% of Open Interest

Morpho is showing a clear leverage expansion: total open interest reached $58,757,640.16, up 27.3% in 24 hours, while price stood at $2.7743 after a 17.3% daily gain. The latest hour, however, saw OI slip 0.7%, creating an important split between the broader buildup and the immediate momentum. Recent coverage has focused on Morpho expanding stock-backed borrowing and USDC lending around tokenized Coinbase assets.

Binance leads, but Bybit is adding leverage faster

Binance remains the central venue with $17.5M of OI and a 29.8% share, up 22.6% over 24 hours and 1.0% over the latest four-hour window. Bybit is the second major concentration at $10.3M, or 17.6% of the total, and its 36.9% daily increase is the strongest among the leading venues. Its four-hour growth reached 6.0%, suggesting that fresh positioning is still being added there even as the aggregate one-hour reading turns slightly negative.

OKX holds $3.5M, representing 6.0% of OI, with a 29.4% daily increase and 3.5% four-hour growth. Bitget contributes another $3.1M, or 5.2%, after a 16.4% daily rise. Together, the visible Binance, Bybit, OKX and Bitget figures show a broad-based expansion rather than a single-exchange spike, although Binance’s concentration means its price response remains especially important.

Funding is positive, with a sharp venue gap

The current funding rate is positive on every listed venue except dYdX, where it is 0.0%. Binance, Bybit, Bitget and most other major venues cluster at 0.005%, a mild but consistent cost for long exposure. Coinbase is higher at 0.0109%, while Crypto.com is 0.010933% and Paradex is 0.009983%. The most extreme reading is Lighter at 0.0336%, whereas Hyperliquid is only 0.00125% and Kraken is 0.00189%.

This dispersion matters because the OI increase is not being priced uniformly across venues. A high funding print on Lighter can indicate crowded local leverage, while the lower Hyperliquid and Kraken readings show that the broader market has not reached the same level of long-carry pressure. Funding is therefore bullish in direction, but not yet a uniform exhaustion signal.

Liquidations and positioning reveal a defensive crowd

The liquidation structure is relatively contained against the size of the OI build. The past 24 hours recorded $15.1K in long liquidations versus $17.7K in short liquidations, for $32.7K total. The 12-hour window was more balanced but still slightly long-heavy, with $13.3K of longs and $9.7K of shorts liquidated. In the latest hour, long liquidations reached $1.2K while shorts accounted for only $6.2, showing that the newest flush favored short positions.

Positioning is more conflicted than the headline OI surge suggests. Binance accounts are 51.5% long and 48.5% short, a modest long bias. Yet the active taker reading is only 34.9% long, implying that aggressive market participants are predominantly selling or opening shorts despite the account-level tilt. This accounts-versus-execution divergence weakens the argument that the OI increase is simply a one-way long chase.

Verdict: The constructive scenario remains valid above $2.7743 while OI holds near or above $58,757,640.16 and Bybit maintains four-hour expansion. A decisive loss of $2.7743 together with OI falling below $58,757,640.16 would invalidate the bullish buildup view and point to leverage unwinding; a further rise in taker longs from 34.9% would also remove the current contrarian support. Data as of 19:05 Beijing time on Sep 19, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.