ONT +15%: OI Jumps 25%, Funding Negative at -0.34%

ONT Jumps 15% While Funding Stays Negative

ONT climbed 15% to $0.0603 on Binance over the past 24 hours, with OKX showing a nearly identical 15.4% gain to $0.0604. The move is unusual for one reason: funding rates across major venues remain negative, with Binance at -0.34% and OKX at -0.34% on the eight-hour window. Negative funding normally signals crowded shorts, and when price rises against that positioning, the classic read is a squeeze. The liquidation data does not support that story here.

OI Rises 25.3% to $18.6M, Led by Binance and MEXC

Open interest across ONT perpetuals grew 25.3% in 24 hours to $18.6 million, and the four-hour window shows an even faster 43% climb on Binance and OKX. MEXC holds the largest slice at 30.2% of total OI with a 16.5% 24h increase, while Binance adds 27.8% and KuCoin 53%. New money is entering the contract, not just old positions being marked higher. When OI expands alongside price, traders are adding exposure rather than covering existing books.

No Squeeze: Liquidation Tables Are Quiet

ONT does not appear among the top liquidation coins in the last 24 hours, and no single large ONT liquidation shows up on the largest-trades list. That is a meaningful contrast with the meme-driven squeezes seen elsewhere in this market cycle, where big price moves usually come with a wall of short liquidations. Here, longs are paying a negative funding rate to hold, and they keep adding size anyway. The move looks driven by spot and new leverage rather than by forced covering.

What It Means for Traders

For ONT specifically, the combination of negative funding and rising OI is the opposite of a typical blow-off top: it is a build phase where bears remain committed and longs are paying for exposure. The risk is that a reversal would hit the fresh long crowd hard, since 25% of OI was added within a single day. Watch whether funding flips positive within 48 hours. A positive flip after a 15% run would signal that the crowded-short phase is over and the marginal buyer is now paying, which historically marks a slower grind rather than a squeeze.

Data as of 01:30 Beijing time on August 27, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit, Gate, Hyperliquid and other major exchanges.