Zcash OI Falls 2.1% as $2.37B Positioning Faces a Derivatives Purge

Zcash derivatives are showing a clear deleveraging signature: total open interest is $2.37B, down 2.1% over 24 hours, even as spot price sits at $1,217.87 and daily trading volume reaches $8.01B. The purge is not uniform across venues, making the distribution of risk more important than the headline decline.

Market discussion has also included a proposal for a low-fee spot Zcash ETF from the Winklevoss twins.

OI contraction is concentrated outside Binance

Binance remains the largest tracked venue, holding $602.2M of OI and a 25.4% share. Its OI is up 0.7% over 24 hours but down 1.8% over four hours, suggesting that the largest pool has only partly participated in the broader reduction. Gate is the second major concentration at $317.8M, or 13.4%, and is moving against the purge with a 4.8% daily increase and a 1.6% four-hour rise.

Bybit holds $176.8M, or 7.5%, but its OI has fallen 5.9% over 24 hours. OKX has $147.5M, a 6.2% share, with declines of 1.7% daily and 5.5% over four hours. Bitget is the sharpest large-venue contraction: its $123.2M OI is down 14.3% in 24 hours. The contrast points to forced or voluntary position reduction at several venues rather than a market-wide exit from every exchange.

Funding stays positive while liquidations favor longs

The funding rate is positive across the main venues, but the intensity varies. Binance is at 0.0%, Bybit at 0.0%, Gate at 0.0%, and Bitget at 0.0% when rounded to one decimal place. CoinEx is the outlier at 0.2%, while Kraken is near 0.0%. This combination of positive funding and falling OI suggests that remaining longs are still paying to hold exposure, even as leverage is being removed.

The liquidation structure reinforces that interpretation. In the past 24 hours, total liquidations reached $30.6M, including $22.0M of longs versus $8.6M of shorts. The four-hour window is smaller at $3.6M, but shorts still account for $2.3M against $1.2M for longs. Over one hour, the total is $0.4M, with $0.4M in shorts and $0.0M in longs after rounding. A notable Binance long liquidation occurred at $1,132.32 and was valued at $1.4M, while another was recorded at $1,111.38 for $0.4M.

Accounts and takers disagree on direction

The aggregate long/short ratio is nearly balanced: 49.5% of accounts are long, while active takers are 50.5% long. Venue data shows why the aggregate can conceal stress. Bybit accounts are 63.2% long even as its OI drops 5.9%, a sign that long-heavy positioning is being reduced rather than aggressively expanded. Binance accounts are 46.2% long, but takers are 57.2% long, showing buyers are more assertive in current trades than the account base suggests.

Gate presents the opposite flow: 46.9% of accounts are long and takers are only 43.8% long, while OI is rising 4.8%. That mix is consistent with new positioning being added against the more defensive direction seen in the active flow. Across the major venues, the account-versus-taker split is therefore a warning against reading balanced aggregate positioning as a clean neutral signal.

Verdict: The immediate bias remains purge-driven rather than trend-confirmed. The key reference is $1,217.87 against $2.37B of OI; a move toward the $1,132.32 liquidation level would test whether the long flush is complete, while recovery above $2.37B with price sustaining above $1,217.87 would invalidate the deleveraging view. Until that signal appears, the combination of falling OI, positive funding, and $22.0M of long liquidations favors a fragile rebound over a durable leverage rebuild.

Data as of 23:05 Beijing time on Oct 9, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.