Quant Open Interest Jumps 64.9% as Short Liquidations Reach $17.5M

Quant derivatives are showing a sharp positioning expansion: aggregated open interest reached $126.2M after rising 64.9% in 24 hours, while 24-hour liquidations totaled $25.8M. Shorts absorbed $17.5M of that forced flow versus $8.3M for longs, making the immediate setup more consistent with a squeeze-driven rally than a clean, one-sided buildup. Recent market coverage has highlighted Quant’s strong advance and renewed attention around broader banking and altcoin themes.

Binance Leads the OI Expansion

The concentration of the open interest surge matters. Binance holds $46.3M, or 36.7% of the tracked total, and its OI increased 67.0% over 24 hours. Bybit is the second-largest visible venue at $20.8M and 16.5% share, with a 33.5% daily increase. Bitget contributes $11.1M and 8.8% share, but its 86.2% rise is the fastest among the major venues listed. Gate is smaller at $4.0M and 3.2% share, yet its OI jumped 102.3%.

This distribution suggests that the move is not being created by a single minor venue. Binance provides the main liquidity base, while Bybit and Bitget add meaningful incremental exposure. The shorter-term figures also show continued momentum: Binance OI rose 8.6% over four hours, Bybit gained 11.7%, and Gate added 7.2%. OKX is the clear exception, with only $510.5K of OI and a 27.2% daily decline.

Funding Is Mixed Despite the Rally

The funding rate picture is less euphoric than the price action. Binance, Bybit, Bitget and several other venues are around 0.0% when rounded to one decimal place, while CoinEx stands out at -0.4%. Gate and Kraken are also slightly negative at -0.0% after rounding, whereas Crypto.com is positive at 0.0%. The cross-venue spread indicates that traders are not paying a uniformly aggressive premium to hold longs.

That restraint is important because the account and execution data disagree. Across the tracked ticker set, 49.7% of accounts are long, leaving 50.3% short. Binance accounts are 43.2% long and 56.8% short, while Bybit accounts are 41.0% long and 59.0% short. OKX is the counterweight, with 70.1% of accounts long. Active takers are more bullish: Binance takers are 49.0% long, Gate takers are 58.7% long, and OKX takers are 65.7% long. The combination points to short-heavy passive positioning being met by more aggressive buying.

Short Liquidations Still Control the Tape

Liquidation timing reinforces that interpretation. In the latest hour, longs lost $402.3K versus $207.3K for shorts, showing a brief counter-move against buyers. Across four hours, however, long liquidations reached $2.2M and shorts $1.1M. The balance then flipped decisively over longer windows: during 12 hours, shorts lost $14.3M against $5.8M for longs, and over 24 hours the short total reached $17.5M.

The largest recorded short liquidation was $120.0K at $244.35, followed by $95.1K at $238.03. Other sizable short events appeared at $367.09, $307.64 and $353.58. With QNT at $262.76, the $244.35 area is the clearest nearby liquidation reference below the market, while the higher prints show that volatility has already forced positions across a wide price range.

Verdict: The bullish OI-surge thesis remains valid while QNT holds above $244.35 and aggregate OI remains near or above $126.2M, especially if taker buying stays above the roughly balanced account positioning. The view is invalidated if price breaks below $244.35 while OI expands again after the latest one-hour OI contraction of 9.0%, signaling that fresh exposure is building into weakness rather than supporting a squeeze. Data as of 12:11 Beijing time on Sep 28, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.