NEAR Protocol: $1.28B OI Slides 10.4% as Longs Face Liquidations
NEAR Protocol is showing a clear deleveraging structure: price is $4.616, total open interest is $1.28B, and aggregate OI has dropped 10.4% over 24 hours. The decline is not evenly distributed across venues, while liquidation data and positioning show that long exposure is absorbing most of the damage. Recent reports say NEAR Intents has addressed a flaw and that an attacker was publicly pressed to return funds.
OI is concentrated where selling is strongest
Binance holds the largest visible share at 18.5%, with $237.2M of NEAR open interest after a 12.2% daily decline. Gate is close behind at 16.7% and $213.6M, but its OI has fallen 13.9%. Bybit represents 12.0% and $153.2M, with the sharpest contraction among the major venues at -17.1%. OKX contributes 4.2%, or $54.3M, after a 9.7% decline. The pattern matters because the biggest OI pools are all shrinking at once, indicating position reduction rather than a single-exchange anomaly.
The shorter window reinforces that interpretation. Binance OI is down 6.3% over four hours, OKX is down 9.9%, Bybit is down 7.0%, and Gate is down 5.6%. With price already down 5.8%, the market is losing both value and leverage. That combination typically leaves a weaker base unless fresh demand returns without immediately rebuilding crowded longs.
Funding is positive, but takers are leaning short
Current funding rates are mostly positive, although the spread is wide. Binance is at 0.004675%, OKX at 0.005472%, and Bybit at 0.01%. Bitget and Gate also show 0.01%, while Bitfinex is negative at -0.039651% and CoinEx is negative at -0.079487%. The major-venue pattern says longs are still paying in several liquid markets, but the negative outliers show that positioning is not uniform.
The more important contradiction appears in the long/short data. Accounts are net long overall at 63.3%, yet active takers are net short at 45.0% long. On Binance, accounts are 58.7% long, while takers are only 44.3% long. Gate shows a similar split: 57.4% of accounts are long, but takers are 47.1% long. This is a defensive market structure: existing accounts remain positioned for a rebound, while traders initiating or closing aggressively are selling into the move.
Liquidations confirm a long-side flush
Liquidations are heavily skewed toward longs across every measured window. In one hour, long liquidations reached $1.6M versus $2.6K for shorts. Over four hours, the split widened to $2.4M against $59.4K. The 12-hour figures show $3.4M in long liquidations and $262.9K in short liquidations, while the 24-hour total reached $5.4M, including $4.2M from longs and $1.3M from shorts.
The largest recorded short liquidation was $197.0K at $5.041, but the larger cluster of long liquidations sits below the market: $185.5K at $4.548, $181.4K at $4.751, and $109.8K at $4.574. The $4.548 level is therefore the clearest nearby stress marker. A sustained move below it would suggest that the current long unwind is extending rather than stabilizing.
Verdict: NEAR’s structure remains bearish-to-defensive while price stays below $4.751 and OI remains under $1.28B. A break below $4.548 with further OI contraction would favor another long flush; the view is invalidated if NEAR reclaims $5.041 while OI rebuilds above $1.28B. Data as of 03:12 Beijing time on Oct 3, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.