Sui Derivatives: $1.0756 Price Meets -17.0% Annualized Basis
Sui is trading at $1.0756 after a 13.4% move, but its derivatives market is sending a less comfortable message: aggregate open interest is $814.2M, up 18.9% in 24 hours, while the annualized basis is -17.0%. That combination means leverage is expanding even as futures trade at a discount to spot. The market is therefore rising into backwardation, a setup more consistent with short covering and defensive positioning than with a fully confirmed trend.
Separately, the reported DeepBook App launch adds a product-development backdrop, but the derivatives data remains the clearest guide to near-term positioning.
OI is concentrated, but broadly expanding
The exchange distribution shows that leverage is not isolated to one venue. Gate holds the largest visible share at 19.0%, with $154.4M of open interest and a 10.9% daily increase. Binance follows with 17.4% and $141.5M, up 14.9%. Bybit accounts for 11.4%, or $92.7M, after an 11.5% increase, while Bitget contributes 8.5% and $68.8M after rising 13.3%.
These four venues represent the main concentration in the supplied exchange breakdown, yet each has added exposure. Binance open interest also increased 6.6% over the shorter window, while Bybit rose 7.5%, Bitget 7.2%, and Gate 8.3%. The broad participation matters: backwardation is not being created by a single exchange anomaly. It reflects a market where positions are being added quickly while traders still demand a discount to carry futures.
Funding is positive, but uneven across venues
Funding remains positive on the largest venues, although the absolute burden differs. Binance is at 0.0% when rounded to one decimal place, while Bybit and OKX are also at 0.0%; Gate and Bitget show the same rounded reading. CoinEx is the outlier at 0.2%, whereas Kraken is negative at -0.0% and Crypto.com is also -0.0%.
The important point is the contrast between positive carry on the most active venues and outright negative readings elsewhere. The average eight-hour funding rate is 0.0% at the displayed precision, but the cross-venue spread shows that long exposure is not being rewarded consistently. In a healthy directional advance, a positive basis would normally accompany persistent demand for futures. Here, the negative basis and mixed funding imply that traders are paying selectively for leverage while the broader curve remains defensive.
Liquidations and positioning reveal a squeeze
Shorts are absorbing the immediate pressure. One-hour liquidations total $411.5K, including $406.5K in shorts versus $4.9K in longs. Over four hours, short liquidations reach $479.1K against $15.7K in longs. The 24-hour total is $3.1M, split between $1.8M in shorts and $1.3M in longs. This imbalance supports the idea that the latest advance has forced bearish positions to close, even while new open interest enters.
Account positioning looks bullish at first glance: 71.5% of accounts are long overall. Binance shows 71.4% long, OKX 68.2%, Bybit 72.5%, and Bitget 79.6%. However, active taker flow is the opposite: Binance takers are only 36.3% long, and Gate takers are 36.3% long. This account-versus-execution split is crucial. Many accounts may be holding long exposure, but aggressive orders are leaning short, suggesting traders are selling rallies or hedging crowded longs.
Verdict: SUI currently looks like a leveraged squeeze inside a backwardated market, not a clean trend confirmation. The key reference is $1.0756 with open interest near $814.2M; a break toward the recorded $0.9953 liquidation level while OI remains elevated would expose the fragile long side. This view is invalidated if price holds above $1.0756 while open interest falls below $812.8M, showing that leverage is being removed without a meaningful price reversal. Data as of 19:05 Beijing time on Sep 25, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.