Starknet Open Interest Surges 144.3% as Short Liquidations Lead
Starknet derivatives have entered a leverage-heavy breakout: Starknet open interest rose 144.3% in 24 hours to $125.1M, while trading volume expanded 1,304.6% to $972.5M. The price stood at $0.06862 after a 40.3% daily advance. This is not simply a spot-led move: capital is rapidly entering perpetual contracts, and the liquidation tape shows that shorts have been forced to chase the rally.
Several reports say Starknet is evaluating a Layer 1 transition as part of a longer-term effort to strengthen its quantum-resistant technology roadmap.
Binance and Bybit anchor the OI expansion
The exchange distribution shows where the leverage is concentrated. Binance held $26.0M, or 20.8% of total open interest, after a 134.9% 24-hour increase and a 27.0% rise over four hours. Bybit was close behind with $23.7M, representing 18.9%, although its daily increase was less aggressive at 93.8%; its four-hour change was 17.3%.
OKX contributed $12.6M, or 10.0% of the total, with open interest up 147.6% over 24 hours and 34.7% over four hours. Bitget was smaller at $5.3M and 4.3% share, but still posted a 78.0% daily increase. The contrast matters: OKX and Binance show especially strong recent acceleration, while Bybit carries a large existing base. Across the measured venues, the expansion is broad rather than isolated to one exchange.
Funding is mostly positive, but not uniform
The funding rate picture supports a bullish bias without showing identical pressure everywhere. Binance, Bybit, Bitget and several other major venues were at 0.005%, while Backpack was lower at 0.00125%. Coinbase showed 0.0705% and CoinEx 0.152258%, both materially higher and indicative of heavier long-side demand on those venues.
There are important counterpoints. Gate was at -0.0086%, Crypto.com at -0.007202%, and WhiteBIT at -0.086197%. Negative funding alongside a sharp price rise can reflect short positioning that is still resisting the move, or uneven market structure between venues. The average eight-hour funding rate was 0.009448%, so the aggregate cost of long leverage was positive but not yet extreme relative to the most expensive individual markets.
Shorts are absorbing the liquidation pressure
The liquidation structure is the clearest evidence of a squeeze. Over 24 hours, total liquidations reached $5.0M across 4,055 events: $3.2M came from shorts and $1.8M from longs. Shorts therefore accounted for the larger share of forced closing. The imbalance was even sharper over four hours, with $1.4M in short liquidations against $0.4M in long liquidations across 1,216 events.
In the latest hour, the same pattern remained visible, though at a smaller scale: $81.8K of shorts were liquidated versus $53.3K of longs. This suggests that upside momentum is still pressuring bearish positions, but the presence of long liquidations warns that volatility is cutting both ways as leverage builds.
Positioning adds a useful contradiction. The overall account split was 49.9% long, close to balanced, while takers were 59.0% long. Binance accounts were 52.3% long, Bybit 57.0%, and Bitget 56.2%, but OKX accounts were only 34.2% long. At Gate, the account split was nearly even at 49.6% long, yet active takers were 78.2% long. In other words, passive positioning is not uniformly bullish, while aggressive traders are buying the move.
Verdict: The bullish derivatives signal remains valid while price holds above $0.06862 and total open interest stays near or above $125.1M, with short liquidations continuing to exceed long liquidations. A close below $0.06862 combined with open interest falling materially below $125.1M would invalidate the squeeze thesis and indicate that fresh leverage is unwinding rather than supporting continuation. Data as of 15:10 Beijing time on Oct 9, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.