NEAR Protocol: $10.2M Liquidations Put Longs Under Pressure
NEAR Protocol was trading at $4.997 as its derivatives market showed a clear liquidation skew: $10.2M was erased over 24 hours, including $6.3M in long positions against $3.9M in shorts. At the same time, aggregate open interest held near $1.43B, up 0.4% over 24 hours but down sharply across the largest venues during the latest four-hour window. The combination points to long exposure being forced out faster than fresh bearish leverage is being built.
Recent market commentary has focused both on bulls trying to defend momentum and on the possibility that expanding onchain tools could reduce reliance on centralized exchanges.
Venue OI is contracting beneath the surface
Binance held the largest reported share at 19.7%, or $281.4M, with OI up 2.0% over 24 hours but down 8.1% over four hours. Gate carried 14.3%, or $204.7M, and was the sharpest large-venue decliner: its OI fell 10.0% over 24 hours and 9.6% over four hours. Bybit represented 13.7%, or $195.5M, with a modest 0.2% daily increase but a 5.5% four-hour drop. Bitget added 5.5%, or $78.9M, rising 1.6% daily while sliding 5.4% over four hours.
This split matters for the liquidation read. Daily OI is not collapsing because Binance, Bybit and Bitget still show positive daily changes, but the shorter window shows broad deleveraging. Gate’s large daily reduction reinforces the idea that the market is shedding risk after crowded positioning rather than decisively adding new shorts.
Funding is mixed, not uniformly bearish
The average funding rate was negative at roughly -0.0%, while exchange readings were fragmented. Binance, Gate and Bitget were each around 0.0% after rounding, whereas Bybit was about -0.0% and OKX was 0.0%. Bitfinex and CoinEx were the notable negative outliers at -0.1% each. Positive readings elsewhere, including Coinbase at 0.0% and Kraken at 0.0%, prevent the funding curve from confirming a broad short squeeze setup.
The more useful signal is the contrast between mildly positive or flat funding and heavy long liquidations. Longs are being removed through price pressure even though funding does not show an extreme short imbalance. That makes the current weakness look more like a crowded-long reset than a cleanly bearish carry trade.
Liquidations expose the long-side imbalance
The short-term structure is heavily one-sided. In the latest hour, longs accounted for $1.3M of liquidations versus only $19.5K for shorts. Over four hours, the split widened to $4.3M against $70.7K; over 12 hours, it was $5.8M versus $1.6M. Only across the full 24-hour window did short liquidations become substantial, reaching $3.9M beside $6.3M in long losses.
The largest recorded events were also long liquidations around $5.0769, $5.1493 and $5.1379, including a $401.4K position at the first level. Binance records showed additional long liquidations near $5.197 and $4.919. Those levels define the immediate stress zone: leverage was vulnerable both on failed rallies and on the later slide.
Positioning data adds an important disagreement. Overall accounts were 58.9% long, while active takers were 58.6% long, so neither measure shows a dominant short crowd. Yet Binance accounts were 61.2% long against 54.6% long takers, while Gate accounts were nearly balanced at 50.6% long but takers were 74.4% long. OKX takers were 46.8% long, the clearest active-selling signal among the reported taker readings. The account-versus-taker gap suggests passive long positioning is being unwound unevenly across venues.
Verdict
NEAR’s liquidation skew remains bearish while price sits at $4.997, especially with $1.43B in OI and four-hour contractions of 8.1% on Binance, 9.6% on Gate, 5.5% on Bybit and 5.4% on Bitget. The immediate downside reference is $4.919, while $5.197 is the key overhead liquidation level. A sustained break below $4.919 with OI holding near $1.43B would favor another long-clearing move; a reclaim of $5.197 accompanied by renewed OI above $1.43B would invalidate this liquidation-skew view and signal that demand is rebuilding rather than merely covering risk. Data as of 22:05 Beijing time on Oct 8, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.