SEI OI Jumps 18.8% to $56M, MEXC Share Hits 34.6%

SEI price grinds to $0.0493 while open interest runs ahead

SEI spent the last 24 hours climbing slowly while its derivatives book expanded far faster. The token traded at $0.0493 on both Binance and OKX, up about 2.8%, with the 24-hour range spanning $0.0479 to $0.0509 across the two venues. Perpetual open interest meanwhile jumped 18.8% to $56.2 million, a pace several times faster than the price move. Leverage is being added into a quiet uptrend rather than into a squeeze, because the token did not show up in the top liquidation ranks over the same window, so forced covers played little part in the build.

MEXC is doing the heavy lifting

The OI expansion is not broad-based, and that matters. MEXC grew its book by 48.3% over 24 hours and another 42.3% in the last four hours alone, pushing its open interest to $19.4 million. It now carries 34.6% of all SEI perp positions, the largest share of any venue. Bybit added 11.1% to $9.5 million and Binance 7.4% to $8.8 million, while KuCoin rose 12.8%. On the other side, OKX actually trimmed 0.2%, and Binance, OKX and Bitget all showed negative four-hour flows. In short, the marginal buyer of leverage right now is concentrated on a single exchange, not spread across the market.

Funding reads bullish, and that cuts both ways

Funding rates tell the same story from a different angle. SEI funding sits at positive 0.01% on MEXC, Binance, Bitget and KuCoin, meaning long positions pay to stay open, while OKX charges a milder 0.005%. Bybit and Gate are the exceptions, with Gate at minus 0.0145%. When most venues charge longs and price is still below its 24-hour high of $0.0509, the crowded side is long. A rejection at that level would make these positions the fuel for a pullback, while a clean break would need volume to broaden beyond MEXC before it looks convincing. For holders, the setup argues for watching two things: whether price clears $0.0509, and whether Binance and OKX open interest starts climbing again instead of drifting.

Data as of 01:55 Beijing time on September 8, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit, MEXC, Gate, Bitget, KuCoin, Hyperliquid and other major venues.