SOL OI Split: Bybit +10.6%, Kraken -21.8%, Liq Balanced

SOL Open Interest Is Moving in Opposite Directions

SOL is holding around $97, up about 1.9% on the day, and the more interesting story is underneath the price. Total open interest sits at $44.7 billion across 21 exchanges, up 2.64% in 24 hours. But the exchange-level detail shows traders are not on the same page. Bybit added 10.6% to its SOL book, now worth $636 million, the biggest single gainer among major venues. Kraken went the other way, cutting 21.8% in the same window. Binance grew 3.5% to $776 million and keeps the second-largest share at 17.35%, while Gate still holds the top spot with $878 million and 19.62% of the market, barely changed.

Liquidations Nearly Balanced: Longs vs Shorts Both Take Hits

Liquidation data for SOL looks unusual compared with the rest of the market. In the last 24 hours, $15.8 million in positions were wiped out, and the split is almost even: $7.27 million on the long side, $8.53 million on the short side. That is not the one-sided flush seen in BTC or ETH, where shorts paid the vast majority. SOL's roughly 46/54 long-short split suggests both sides are getting squeezed as price whipsaws inside a $93.2 to $97.7 range. A leveraged book this evenly matched tends to resolve with one side capitulating, and the exchange divergence above hints at which direction the next push may come from.

Funding Stays Positive While Price Holds $97

Funding rates across major venues remain mildly positive, a sign that perp demand is still tilted long. Binance, OKX, Bybit and Bitget all sit at 0.01%, Gate is slightly negative at -0.004%, and Hyperliquid shows 0.00125%. With price holding above $97 after touching a 24h low of $93.2, the longs being added at Bybit are not paying a heavy premium to stay positioned. That is a quieter setup than the ZEC-style blow-off seen earlier this week, where funding spiked before the flush. SOL is building leverage at a normal cost, which usually means the move has more room before it gets crowded.

What the Divergence Means for SOL Traders

For anyone watching SOL, the practical takeaway is to track where the incremental longs are coming from. Bybit adding 10.6% in a day while Kraken pulls back nearly 22% is a real disagreement between two books, not noise. If SOL breaks above the $97.7 intraday high with Bybit OI still climbing, the shorts who paid $8.53 million in liquidations so far could face a faster squeeze. If it rolls over and loses $93.2, the Bybit longs are the ones at risk. Either way, the balanced liquidation profile means the next 24 hours will likely produce a one-sided flush that resets one of these two groups. Watch the funding rate too: a move to negative territory would confirm the sellers are winning the argument.

Data as of 00:20 Beijing time, Aug 25, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit, Hyperliquid, Gate, Bitget and other major exchanges.