Solana Funding Turns Negative as $5.22B OI Keeps Longs Crowded
Solana is trading at $118.01 with average 8-hour funding at -0.0241%, while total open interest has reached $5.22B. That combination is the core hotspot: leverage is still expanding, up 1.2% over 24 hours, but longs are no longer being paid to hold exposure. Instead, the market is charging them, a sign that demand for long protection or short positioning is overwhelming the funding balance.
News attention is divided between a corporate move from gold into Solana and broader debate over which major crypto assets offer the strongest long-term opportunity.
OI is rising, but the exchange map is uneven
Binance holds the largest reported SOL futures share at 18.9%, with $987.6M in open interest and a 1.9% daily increase. Gate is the most aggressive growth venue among the major positions, carrying $867.2M, or 16.6% of the total, after a 10.4% daily jump and a 6.4% increase over four hours. That makes Gate an important source of fresh leverage rather than a passive pool of existing contracts.
The contrast is sharper at Bybit and Bitget. Bybit represents 13.8% of open interest at $722.2M, but its position base has fallen 12.9% in 24 hours. Bitget controls 9.0%, or $471.7M, after a 4.6% decline. OKX, with 6.5% and $338.8M, is also down 2.7%. The headline total therefore hides a rotation: Gate is adding risk while several large venues are reducing it. That kind of divergence can make negative funding more unstable if the growth venue eventually unwinds.
Account positioning says crowded long, flow says conflict
The account-based long/short ratio is strongly tilted toward longs across the five reported venues. Bitget leads with 74.6% of accounts long, followed by Bybit at 70.0%, Binance at 65.8%, OKX at 64.2%, and Gate at 61.4%. The aggregate account picture is therefore a clear long crowd, consistent with the negative funding burden: many traders want upside exposure, but the market is not rewarding that positioning.
Active taker flow is less uniform. Binance takers are 61.3% short versus 38.7% long, a meaningful bearish imbalance, while OKX takers lean 55.3% long and Gate reaches 67.9% long. This account-versus-taker split matters. Passive or existing accounts remain long-heavy, yet Binance market orders are pressing the short side. The result is not a clean bullish consensus; it is a crowded long book being challenged by selective selling.
Liquidations show the downside is already active
Recent liquidation data confirms that the pressure is not merely theoretical. Over four hours, SOL liquidations totaled $99.5K, including $76.7K of longs against $22.8K of shorts. Over 24 hours, the total expanded to $14.6M, with long liquidations at $8.2M and shorts at $6.4M. The 12-hour window was more balanced, with $7.2M in long liquidations and $5.8M in shorts, but longs still absorbed the larger loss.
The largest recorded forced exits were three OKX long liquidations near $120.08, $119.88, and $118.97, each close to $0.6M in value. Shorts were also squeezed at Binance around $122.66 and $122.18, with individual values of $412.4K and $404.4K. This range shows a market capable of trapping both sides, but the broader 24-hour structure still favors long damage.
Verdict
The negative-funding bias remains bearish for crowded SOL longs while price stays below the $120.08-$122.66 liquidation zone and open interest remains near or above $5.22B. A sustained move back through $122.66 accompanied by a clear reduction from the current $5.22B OI would invalidate the downside-crowding view by showing that leverage is being cleared without deeper price damage. Until then, Gate’s $867.2M expansion, Binance’s 61.3% short taker flow, and $8.2M of 24-hour long liquidations point to fragile upside positioning rather than a clean trend reversal. Data as of 08:15 Beijing time on Oct 1, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.