TAO +9.4% to $257: OI Jumps 17%, Funding Near Zero
TAO climbed 9.4% to $257 in the past 24 hours, and the move does not look like the squeeze rallies that have dominated this week. Open interest across major venues rose 17% to $377M while funding rates stayed near zero, a pairing that usually means fresh buyers stepped in rather than shorts being forced to cover.
OI Growth Is Broad, With Hyperliquid Out Front
The open interest build is spread across exchanges, not concentrated on one venue. Hyperliquid added 52.2% in 24 hours to reach $57.4M, its fastest expansion among the top venues. Binance grew 20.2% to $75.4M, OKX climbed 26.1% to $20.8M, and Bybit added 21.9% to $47.4M. Bitget rose 11.9% and Gate 11.7%. When every major venue grows at once, it is harder to blame a single exchange's listing or margin change; the demand looks market-wide.
Near-Zero Funding Points Away From a Squeeze
Funding rates tell the same story. Binance sits at 0.005%, OKX at 0.01%, Bybit at 0.005%, and Hyperliquid at 0.0018%. In a classic short squeeze, these numbers spike well above 0.05% as longs queue up to pay shorts. Here the market is paying almost nothing to hold long positions, which suggests traders are adding size without urgency or crowd panic. The rally is being carried by conviction buying, not by fear of missing out.
Liquidations Are Almost Invisible
TAO saw roughly $700K in liquidations over 24 hours, split about evenly between longs and shorts. Compare that with SOL at $35.9M or ETH at $184M in the same window. A coin that jumps 9% with almost no forced unwinds is rare in this tape. It means the move is not being powered by leverage cascades, and it also means there is no big pile of trapped positions waiting to add fuel to a reversal.
What to Watch Next
Price and open interest rising together is the textbook signature of new money coming in. The risk builds on the way down: if TAO tops out near its 24-hour high of $261-262 but OI keeps climbing, that would signal crowded longs at elevated prices and a sharper pullback later. For now the 4-hour OI trend is still adding 7-17% across venues, so the setup stays intact. The immediate test is whether buyers can clear $262 and hold above it.
Data as of 19:10 Beijing time on August 27, covering major venues including Binance, OKX, Bybit, Hyperliquid, Gate, and Bitget.