NEAR Protocol OI Climbs 29.4% to $1.16B as Shorts Get Squeezed
NEAR Protocol is showing a classic leverage expansion: price is $4.277, total open interest is $1.16B, and OI has increased 29.4% in 24 hours. Volume is up 143.2% over the same period, while the average 8-hour funding rate is 0.016%, leaving the market bullish but increasingly crowded.
Recent coverage has focused on a protocol upgrade, an overheated rally, and progress toward a larger TVL milestone. The derivatives data adds a more specific warning: participation is expanding quickly, but the latest short squeeze has not produced a clean reset in positioning.
Binance and Bybit carry the expansion
Binance holds the largest reported OI share at 20.4%, with $236.8M outstanding and a 29.1% 24-hour increase. Bybit follows with 18.0% and $208.3M, although its growth is slower at 14.5%. OKX contributes 5.3% and $61.1M after a 27.9% daily rise, while Bitget holds 6.0% and $69.6M after adding 19.1%.
The distribution is broad, but the short-term direction is less one-sided than the daily figures imply. Binance OI is down 4.6% over four hours, Bybit is down 7.3%, OKX is down 3.4%, and Bitget is down 3.5%. That combination points to intraday leverage being trimmed after the larger build-up, rather than fresh OI accelerating at the current price.
Funding is positive, but not uniform
Most major venues show positive funding near 0.010%: Binance, Bitget, BitMEX, Gate, KuCoin, MEXC, OKX, and several others. Bybit is milder at 0.005%, while Hyperliquid is 0.002%. The extremes matter more than the median: Lighter is at 0.136%, CoinEx at 0.104%, and Bitfinex at -0.035%.
This spread argues against treating the rally as a single, synchronized long trade. High positive rates on smaller venues can signal localized leverage, while negative funding on Bitfinex shows that some traders are still paying to hold the opposite side. The market-wide average is constructive, but venue dispersion raises the risk of uneven liquidations if momentum fades.
Shorts are still paying the squeeze
Liquidation data confirms that upside pressure has punished shorts. Over 24 hours, short liquidations reached $7.95M versus $2.69M for longs, for a combined $10.64M. The imbalance was even sharper across the latest 12-hour window, with $2.80M in short liquidations against $1.25M in longs. In the latest 4-hour window, however, longs accounted for $721.8K compared with $205.9K for shorts, showing that the squeeze has begun to create pullback risk.
The largest recorded event was a $198.3K short liquidation on Binance at $4.287, followed by $155.4K on Hyperliquid at $4.307. These levels sit close to the current price and show how quickly crowded shorts can be forced out around the upper-$4.2 area.
Positioning remains split between passive optimism and active caution. Account data shows 61.4% of accounts long, while the taker split is only 46.5% long, implying that active market orders lean short even as more accounts maintain long exposure. Binance has 65.3% long accounts but only 53.5% long takers; Gate is more extreme, with 55.5% long accounts against just 33.5% long takers. The divergence weakens the case for a frictionless continuation.
Verdict: The immediate bullish signal is price holding above $4.277 while total OI remains near or above $1.16B; that would keep the expansion-and-squeeze structure intact. The view is invalidated if NEAR loses $4.277 while total OI falls below $1.16B, indicating that leverage is unwinding without renewed upside demand. Data as of 17:05 Beijing time on Sep 21, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.