SKR +26% With OI +104%: Funding Stays Negative
SKR up 26% while funding stays negative
SKR traded at $0.0106 at the time of writing, up about 26% over 24 hours on Binance, with Bybit, Gate and Bitget showing almost identical gains between 25.9% and 26.7%. The move is unusual in one respect: funding remains negative across every major venue that lists the perp. Binance prints -0.078%, Gate -0.061%, KuCoin -0.066%, and the OI-weighted average sits near -0.059%.
Negative funding during a rally means shorts are the ones paying longs. The price is rising not because longs are bidding up leverage, but because spot buyers and squeezed shorts are doing the work. That is the opposite of a typical leveraged melt-up, where funding turns sharply positive as new longs pile in.
Open interest doubles in 24 hours
Total open interest across eleven venues reached roughly $8.8 million, up 104% in a single day. Binance leads with $3.05 million and a 24-hour OI change of +146%, followed by Bybit at $2.40 million (+75%) and Bitget at $0.95 million (+100%). KuCoin and Backpack grew even faster on a percentage basis, at +126% and +152%, though from smaller bases.
The OI build alongside negative funding points to fresh two-sided positioning: new longs entering on momentum, and shorts stepping in front of a coin that has already run. That combination tends to feed volatility rather than resolve it quickly.
A 54% intraday range shows how wild the tape is
SKR printed a 24-hour high of $0.01267 and a low of $0.00824 on Binance, a swing of roughly 54% from low to high. The coin is still about 16% off that high. Trading volume is meaningful for a token of this size: Binance spot alone recorded about $64.9 million in 24-hour volume, with the broader market near $95 million.
Liquidations stayed small. SKR does not appear near the top of the liquidation leaderboard, which fits a move driven more by spot demand and short covering than by cascading leverage wipeouts.
What to watch
Three things separate this setup from a normal squeeze. First, funding has not flipped positive, so the market is still crowded with shorts paying to stay short. Second, OI growth is accelerating at the venue level even as the 4-hour OI change cools slightly, which suggests churn rather than a single directional bet. Third, the 54% range means stops are tight and small news can produce outsized moves.
For traders, the read is straightforward: the leveraged crowd is not aligned with the price trend, and that rarely stays quiet for long. Either funding turns positive as longs dominate, or a fade catches the late longs. Keep an eye on the 4-hour funding print at Binance and whether OI keeps climbing while price stalls.
Data as of 14:00 Beijing time on Aug 28, covering Binance, Bybit, Gate, Bitget, KuCoin, Hyperliquid and other major venues.