SOL Tops $104: OI +12% to $5.08B, Shorts Paid 78% of $27.7M

SOL Holds $104 as Open Interest Rebuilds

SOL is trading at $104.58 on Binance and $104.59 on OKX, up 7.8% in 24 hours after reclaiming the $100 level and pushing to a high of $104.83. The move stands out because the derivatives book is growing with it. Total open interest sits at $5.08 billion, up 12% on the day, and every major venue is adding: Binance +12.2%, Bybit +19.8%, Gate +12.9%, OKX +11.3%. Even the 4-hour window shows all four exchanges up around 6%, so the build is broad, not a one-venue spike.

Shorts Paid 78% of SOL Liquidations

Liquidations on the coin reached $27.7 million over 24 hours, with shorts accounting for $21.6 million, or 78% of the total. That pattern matches the price path: the token bottomed near $94.8, then squeezed higher through $100 and kept running. For context, the whole crypto market saw $328 million liquidated in 24 hours with shorts at 59.7%, so this short-heavy profile is roughly double the market average. The single largest coin-specific event in the last hour was a short liquidation cluster on Binance and Hyperliquid as price moved through $104.

Funding Flat at 0.01%: This Is New Longs, Not a Squeeze

The tell here is funding. Binance, OKX and Bybit all show SOL funding at 0.01% on 8-hour intervals, effectively neutral. After a squeeze, funding usually spikes positive as late longs pile in and pay to stay long. It has not. Combined with the OI build, the read is that fresh directional longs opened the position book as price broke out, while shorts kept closing into the move. That is a healthier structure than a leveraged squeeze: less of the position book is underwater at $104 than it was at $98.

What to Watch: $105.3 High and Funding Next

The 24-hour high sits at $105.36 on the aggregate tape, and the token has already tagged $104.85 on OKX. If OI keeps climbing with price, the move has room; if funding starts printing above 0.02% and OI flatlines, late leverage is catching up and the risk shifts. For traders, the funding rate is the cleanest early signal here, since price and OI have both already moved.

Data as of 16:20 Beijing time, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit, Hyperliquid, Gate, Bitget and other major exchanges.