NEAR Protocol OI Surges 12.4% as $1.40B Futures Stack Up
NEAR Protocol is trading at $4.94 with futures open interest at $1.40B, up 12.4% in 24 hours. That is a meaningful leverage expansion beside a 10.3% price gain, but the structure is already showing stress: the latest one-hour liquidation window recorded $113.2K in short liquidations against only $4.5K on the long side. The immediate read is a rally attracting new exposure while forcing shorts to cover, rather than a cleanly balanced trend.
Recent market coverage has tied NEAR’s advance to expectations around a newly listed exchange-traded product and the possibility of further upside, reinforcing the narrative pressure behind the move.
OI growth is broad, but Gate leads the acceleration
Across 19 venues, aggregate open interest rose to $1.40B, with the four largest visible contributors showing different speeds. Binance holds $258.1M, or 18.5% of the total, after a 10.8% 24-hour increase. Bybit carries $234.6M and 16.8% share, up 6.6%, while Gate has $143.7M, or 10.3%, after a much sharper 38.7% jump. OKX is smaller at $65.6M and 4.7% share, but still added 8.8%.
The concentration matters because the strongest expansion is not coming from the largest venue. Gate’s OI also gained 2.5% over four hours, while Binance, OKX and Bybit declined 0.9%, 0.2% and 0.3% respectively over that same window. Bitget, with $78.5M and 5.6% share, fell 3.5% in four-hour OI despite a 7.1% daily increase. That combination points to a market still carrying elevated leverage, but with the newest positioning beginning to cool on several core venues.
Funding is split, not uniformly bullish
The funding rate dispersion confirms that leverage is not equally comfortable everywhere. Bybit is charging longs 0.0083%, while Gate is at 0.0100% and Aster is also 0.0100%. Binance is slightly negative at -0.0012%, whereas OKX is -0.0067% and Bitget is -0.0061%. CoinEx is the outlier at -0.0795%, though its visible OI is only $132.98K.
That split is more informative than the headline average funding rate of -0.00000569 as a decimal 8-hour rate. Positive funding on several venues shows demand for long exposure, but negative rates on major venues indicate that traders are still paying to maintain short positions or that positioning remains hedged. The result is squeeze potential without a uniform long-crowding signal.
Accounts lean long while active flow is less committed
The exchange long/short ratio shows retail-style account positioning leaning bullish. Binance accounts are 61.5% long, Bybit 61.0%, and Bitget 60.4%; Gate is less stretched at 53.3% long. Yet taker flow is closer to neutral: Binance is 51.9% long, OKX 54.9%, and Gate 55.5%.
This account-versus-taker gap is the key warning. More accounts are positioned long, but aggressive execution is not showing the same degree of conviction. Meanwhile, the 24-hour liquidation total reached $7.3M, led by $4.8M of shorts versus $2.5M of longs. The shorter one-hour and four-hour windows remain short-heavy, at $113.2K versus $4.5K and $118.2K versus $58.0K respectively, while the 12-hour window flips to $954.7K of long liquidations against $613.8K of shorts. That reversal suggests the squeeze has already started rotating into two-way leverage cleanup.
Verdict: The tactical bias remains bullish above $4.909 while OI holds near or above $1.396B, with $4.958 acting as the first nearby stress point and $5.218 marking the next liquidation-sensitive upside level. The view is invalidated if price loses $4.909 while OI retreats below $1.396B, because that would signal leverage unwinding rather than fresh accumulation. Data as of 15:09 Beijing time on Sep 26, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.