SOON OI Jumps 68.2% as Funding Crowds and Shorts Get Squeezed
SOON is showing the classic signature of a leverage-driven breakout: price is at $0.3011 after a 41.7% rise, while total open interest has expanded 68.2% in twenty-four hours to about $49.7M. Trading volume has risen 1,909.9% over the same period, making this more than a quiet repricing. The important question is whether the new exposure represents durable demand or a crowded chase.
Elsewhere, discussion has centered on adding Zcash-like shielded privacy to Bitcoin without changing its base rules.
Where the new leverage sits
Binance remains the largest venue in the OI snapshot, with $15.7M and a 31.6% share after an 81.4% daily increase. Bitget is close behind at $14.1M, representing 28.5% of the total, although its growth was slower at 44.9%. Bybit contributes $6.7M, or 13.4%, after a 118.5% jump, while OKX holds $5.3M, or 10.8%, after the strongest major-venue expansion at 155.4%.
The shorter window reinforces the acceleration. Binance added 22.5% in four hours, Bybit added 28.2%, and OKX added 43.3%. Bitget grew 11.9%, while Gate’s OI fell 3.7% over that same window. This distribution matters: the surge is not isolated to a single exchange, but the fastest additions are concentrated in venues where positioning can change quickly. Total OI is therefore expanding broadly, yet unevenly.
Funding is positive, but positioning is split
Current funding rates are positive across the principal venues, with Binance at 0.1%, Bitget at 0.0%, Bybit at 0.0%, Gate at 0.0%, and OKX at 0.0% when rounded to one decimal place. CoinEx is the outlier at 0.2%, while Aster and Bitunix are each near 0.1%. The overall average funding reading is 0.041%, which confirms that longs are paying shorts, but the exchange spread shows that the cost of leverage is not uniform.
The positioning data is more nuanced than the funding signal. Binance accounts are 52.6% long, while OKX accounts are 37.1% long and Bybit accounts are 41.4% long. Gate is nearly balanced at 52.5% long. Yet active Binance takers are 57.7% long and Gate takers are 62.7% long. In other words, existing accounts are mixed or short-heavy on several large venues, while aggressive recent flow is leaning long. That account-versus-taker divergence can support upside briefly, but it also leaves the latest buyers more exposed if momentum stalls.
Liquidations show the short squeeze footprint
Liquidations totaled $897.6K over twenty-four hours, with $624.9K from shorts versus $272.7K from longs. The imbalance is even clearer across the four-hour window: short liquidations reached $510.3K, more than twice the $207.2K in long liquidations. Over the latest hour, however, the structure was nearly even, with $50.1K in long liquidations and $47.1K in short liquidations.
This sequence suggests that the earlier advance forced shorts out, helping price rise while OI expanded as new traders entered. The latest hour no longer shows a dominant liquidation side, so the easy squeeze fuel may be fading. With the one-hour OI change already at negative 2.7% despite the daily surge, the market is beginning to test whether fresh demand can replace closed positions.
Verdict
The bullish setup remains valid while SOON holds $0.3011 and OI stays near or above $49.5M: that combination would indicate that the breakout is retaining leverage rather than merely unwinding shorts. The exclusive invalidation signal is a loss of $0.3011 accompanied by OI contracting below the current $49.5M base; that would turn the surge into a distribution event. Until then, the data favors continued upside pressure, but with the strongest risk concentrated among newly opened long positions.
Data as of 15:05 Beijing time on Sep 27, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.