NEAR Protocol: $8.7M Long Liquidations Expose a Skewed Flush
NEAR Protocol is showing a clear liquidation-skew signal: price is $4.974 after an 8.9% decline, while 24-hour liquidation volume reached $10.2M. Long positions accounted for $8.7M of that total, compared with $1.5M in short liquidations. At the same time, aggregate open interest stands near $1.4B, down 6.3% over 24 hours. Recent coverage has described a broader altcoin rebound while also suggesting that NEAR’s rally narrative is losing momentum.
Positioning is being unwound, not rebuilt
The exchange-level OI picture reinforces the defensive tone. Binance holds $265.8M, or 18.8% of tracked OI, after a 10.4% daily contraction. Gate carries $242.0M, equal to 17.2%, and is down 9.4%. Bybit has $167.7M, or 11.9%, but suffered the sharpest decline among these major venues at 15.1%. OKX is smaller at $62.1M and 4.4%, with a 4.2% drop, while Bitget holds $76.5M, or 5.4%, after a 5.9% decline.
The broad alignment matters more than any single venue. Total OI is falling while trading volume is up 3.2%, a combination consistent with forced position reduction and active turnover rather than fresh leverage accumulation. The exception is Gate’s 4-hour OI change, which rose 0.7% even as its 24-hour figure remained negative. That small short-term increase is not yet large enough to offset the wider deleveraging pattern.
Liquidations favor the downside, but the window is changing
The liquidation structure is heavily bearish across the full day: longs lost $8.7M against $1.5M for shorts. The largest recorded long event was $420.3K on Binance at $4.733, followed by $373.0K and $365.3K on OKX at $4.973 and $4.871. A $215.0K Hyperliquid long liquidation at $4.9366 adds evidence that leverage was vulnerable close to the current market.
However, the shorter windows show a shift in pressure. The latest 1-hour total was only $30.3K, with $26.7K in longs and $3.6K in shorts. Over 4 hours, shorts led with $620.7K against $304.5K in longs, and over 12 hours the split was $999.6K short versus $805.4K long. That means the initial long flush has cooled, while countertrend short liquidations have started to appear as price stabilizes near $4.974. The bearish skew remains dominant on the 24-hour horizon, but it is no longer accelerating in every interval.
Accounts lean long while takers disagree
Account positioning is crowded on the long side. The aggregate account reading is 64.4% long, and the exchange breakdown ranges from 60.3% long on Binance to 70.9% on Bitget. OKX and Bybit are also long-heavy at 65.2% and 64.7%. This creates a pool of vulnerable longs if the $4.733 liquidation zone is revisited.
Active taker flow is more conflicted. Binance takers are 51.0% short and OKX takers are 55.6% short, while Gate is an extreme 81.1% long. The account-versus-taker divergence therefore does not confirm a clean bullish reversal: passive positioning remains long-heavy, but important execution flow is selling into the market. Funding adds another bearish pressure point. The average rate is -0.0076%, with Bybit at -0.0130%, OKX at -0.0358%, Gate at -0.0487%, and CoinEx at -0.0795%. Bitget and Aster are both positive at 0.0100%, showing that the negative carry is broad but not universal.
Verdict: The liquidation-skew remains bearish while NEAR trades at $4.974 below the $5.041 short-liquidation print and with OI near $1.4B after a 6.3% daily contraction. A retest of $4.733 would put the clearest long-liquidation level back in focus; this view is invalidated if price reclaims $5.041 while OI expands from $1.4B rather than continuing to contract. Data as of 15:15 Beijing time on Oct 2, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.