Pepe Derivatives Split: $313.98M OI Meets 74.0% Long Accounts
Pepe is trading at $0.00000435 with $313.98M in aggregate open interest, up 0.7% over 24 hours, but the market is not positioned in one clean direction. Account data shows 74.0% long, while taker flow is 49.5% long overall and the clearest venue-level read shows only 12.9% of active traders buying against 87.1% selling. That split makes PEPE a positioning-divergence hotspot rather than a straightforward trend trade.
Market commentary is presenting PEPE as being at a decisive technical crossroads, with traders weighing whether renewed momentum can continue or fade.
OI is concentrated, but the leaders disagree
Gate holds the largest reported PEPE futures allocation at $108.80M, or 34.7% of the tracked total, and its OI is up 0.3% over 24 hours. Bitget follows with $36.66M and an 11.7% share after adding 4.0%, while OKX carries $31.21M, or 9.9%, despite a 3.0% decline. The concentration matters because the largest venue is only marginally expanding exposure, while a smaller but still meaningful venue is adding risk more aggressively and OKX is reducing it.
The four-hour changes sharpen that contrast: Gate is down 0.6%, Bitget is down 1.3%, and OKX is down 5.7%. In other words, the aggregate 0.7% daily OI increase is not being confirmed by broad short-term expansion across the main venues. This is a fragile rise in exposure, with capital rotating between exchanges rather than producing a uniform derivatives bid.
Funding is positive almost everywhere
The funding rate map adds another layer to the divergence. Gate, Bitget and OKX each show 0.010%, while BitMEX is also at 0.010%. CoinEx is slightly lower at 0.009%, and Crypto.com is at 0.009%. By contrast, Kraken is the outlier at -0.003%, while Bitfinex and dYdX are at 0.000%.
Positive funding across the main concentration venues means longs are generally paying to maintain exposure, even as the trading flow is more defensive. The isolated negative reading on Kraken prevents the signal from being uniformly bullish: it suggests that positioning pressure is venue-specific, not a universal conviction that PEPE must rise. With the average eight-hour funding reading at 0.007%, carry is positive but not extreme enough to confirm a broad long squeeze by itself.
Liquidations favor the downside reset
The liquidation structure is the clearest warning. Over 24 hours, total liquidations reached $717.3K, including $674.1K of longs versus only $43.2K of shorts. The imbalance persists over 12 hours, when longs accounted for $604.7K against $22.2K of shorts, and over four hours, with $543.1K of long liquidations versus $12.6K of shorts.
The largest recorded event was a $192.7K long liquidation on Bitget at $0.00000425. That level is important because it marks a demonstrated stress point beneath the current $0.00000435 price. The liquidation data says the market has already been punishing crowded longs, even though the long/short ratio remains heavily tilted toward long accounts on Gate: 73.2% long against 26.8% short. The active taker split of 12.9% long and 87.1% short shows that traders executing now are leaning sharply against that account-level positioning.
Verdict: PEPE’s near-term bias is fragile and skewed toward another downside positioning reset while price remains close to $0.00000425 and OI stays near $313.98M. A clean move above $0.00000440 accompanied by renewed OI expansion from $313.98M would invalidate this bearish-divergence view; without that confirmation, the long-account majority remains vulnerable to further liquidation pressure. Data as of 06:05 Beijing time on Sep 27, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.