Pendle OI Jumps 20.3% as $2.6425 Breakout Meets Crowded Longs
Pendle is pressing higher at $2.6425 as aggregate open interest reaches about $87.8M, up 20.3% over 24 hours. The combination is notable because trading volume is also up 40.8%, suggesting the move is being accompanied by fresh derivatives activity rather than only thin spot buying. Yet the positioning data is not uniformly bullish: active takers lean short while account-level exposure remains net long.
Binance and Bybit carry the breakout
OI concentration is led by Binance at $30.5M, or 34.7% of the tracked total, after an 18.5% daily increase and a 6.3% rise over the latest four-hour window. Bybit contributes another $17.6M, representing 20.1% of OI, with its position base up 14.4% in 24 hours and 5.0% over four hours. Together, those two venues account for the main liquidity backbone behind the move.
The next tier is much smaller but still expanding. Bitget holds $3.8M, or 4.4%, after an 11.4% daily increase, while OKX carries $3.7M, or 4.2%, after a 6.3% rise. The broad-based increases matter: Binance, Bybit, Bitget and OKX are all adding exposure, so the $87.8M total does not appear to be a single-venue distortion. The shorter-term acceleration is also visible at Gate, where OI is up 8.3% over four hours, although its share is only 1.1%.
Short liquidations are validating the move
The liquidation structure favors a squeeze interpretation. Over 24 hours, total liquidations reached $114.9K, with $101.5K from shorts versus only $13.4K from longs. The imbalance was even sharper over 12 hours: $97.1K in short liquidations against $11.5K in long liquidations, for a $108.5K total. In the latest one-hour window, $12.7K of shorts were liquidated while long liquidations were zero.
This is constructive for momentum, but it also shows that part of the advance has been powered by forced buying. The four-hour window is less extreme, with $19.7K in short liquidations and $9.1K in longs, totaling $28.8K. That moderation could become important if new buyers stop adding exposure at the current price.
Positioning disagrees with active flow
The aggregate long/short picture is split. The account tracker shows 53.2% of accounts long, compared with 44.8% long among active takers, meaning the broader account base is bullish while the traders currently initiating or closing aggressively are more defensive. On Binance specifically, 60.2% of accounts are long and 39.8% short, a stronger long skew than the aggregate reading.
Funding is positive across most major venues, reinforcing the cost of holding long exposure. Binance, Bybit, Bitget and Gate each show 0.010%, while OKX is at 0.010% and Hyperliquid is lower at 0.00125%. CoinEx is the outlier on the positive side at 0.017542%, whereas Crypto.com is negative at -0.005108%. The venue spread says longs are paying in most markets, but not yet at a uniformly stressed level.
News context: Crypto Briefing reported that an NGI+ integration is enabling trading tied to tokenized infrastructure yields through Pendle.
Verdict: The breakout remains valid while Pendle holds $2.6425 and aggregate OI holds near $87.8M; the view is invalidated if price falls below $2.6425 while OI loses that $87.8M area, signaling that forced short covering has ended and fresh demand is absent. Data as of 21:05 Beijing time on Sep 18, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.