Solana Liquidation Skew: $1.2M Shorts Hit in the Latest Four Hours
At $119.73, Solana is showing a sharp time-frame split in its derivatives market: $1.2M of shorts were liquidated over four hours, compared with only $45.5K of longs. Yet across 24 hours, long liquidations reached $8.4M versus $4.9M for shorts. That reversal, alongside $5.2B in open interest and a 0.7% daily rise in OI, points to a market that can still produce a fast squeeze in either direction.
Recent coverage has also focused on stronger institutional interest in Solana-related investment products, adding a constructive backdrop without removing the immediate leverage risk.
Open interest is expanding unevenly
Binance remains the largest visible SOL derivatives venue with $993.3M of OI, or 19.0% of the tracked total, after a 3.0% increase over 24 hours. Gate holds $840.1M, or 16.1%, with OI up 0.3%, while Bybit carries $821.0M, or 15.7%, after a 0.1% rise. Bitget contributes $498.1M, or 9.5%, but its OI fell 2.6%.
The more important short-term detail is the four-hour change: Gate OI rose 4.3%, Bybit climbed 4.0%, Binance added 2.1%, and Bitget declined 1.2%. This suggests leverage is building most aggressively on venues where the short-side liquidation pocket can remain active, rather than through a uniform market-wide accumulation. The largest single reported liquidation was a $511.9K OKX short at $120.61, followed by a $404.9K Binance short at $119.87 and a $362.7K Binance short at $120.90.
Liquidation flow favors a near-term squeeze
The four-hour liquidation imbalance is clearly short-heavy: $1.2M of shorts versus $45.5K of longs. The one-hour window is even cleaner, with $149.7K of shorts liquidated and no reported long liquidations. These figures fit the recent price action around the $119.87 to $120.90 zone, where upside moves have forced crowded shorts to close.
However, the broader tape is not simply bullish. Over 12 hours, long liquidations totaled $4.9M against $1.5M for shorts, and the 24-hour long figure expanded to $8.4M. A $284.2K Hyperliquid long liquidation at $116.38 is a useful downside marker: the market has already punished leverage below the current price, but a return toward that level would show that the short squeeze has failed.
Positioning disagrees with active flow
Account positioning is heavily long. The aggregate account split is 65.0% long versus 35.0% short, while the taker split is only 47.4% long and 52.6% short. That is the central liquidation-skew signal: passive or existing accounts remain long, but active market participants are leaning short.
The exchange data reinforces the divergence. Bybit accounts are 68.6% long, Bitget accounts are 73.7% long, and Binance accounts are 63.5% long. Yet Binance takers are 42.8% long, while OKX takers are 46.9% long and Gate takers are 48.5% long. Funding is mostly positive, including 0.0% on Binance after one-decimal rounding, 0.0% on OKX, and 0.0% on Bybit, while CoinEx shows -0.6%. The negative ticker funding average and -15.2% annualized basis indicate that the broader derivatives curve is still defensive despite long-heavy accounts.
Verdict: SOL has a near-term upside liquidation skew while it holds above $116.38: shorts are being forced out around $119.87-$120.90, and active flow remains short against long-heavy accounts. The key structure is $5.2B in OI with Binance at $993.3M; the view is invalidated by a break below $116.38 accompanied by OI holding or expanding above $5.2B, which would signal fresh downside leverage rather than a squeeze reset. Data as of 18:05 Beijing time on Sep 29, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.