ZEC Hits $858: OI +7.8% to $1.74B, HL Overtakes Binance

ZEC is holding above $858 after a 2.8% daily gain, and the move has more to do with how positions are stacked than with price action itself. Open interest across major venues rose 7.8% to $1.74 billion, while funding rates stayed close to zero. Shorts have been the ones paying through the 24-hour window.

ZEC shorts paid 73.6% of $4.61M in liquidations

Liquidation data for the privacy coin shows $4.61 million wiped in the past 24 hours, with short positions accounting for roughly 73.6% of that total. That split matches the tape: every push above $850 has forced covering from leveraged bears, and the bounce off the $827 low into $858 was a straight grind, not a cascade. Long-side liquidations stayed light, which suggests the rally is not built on overstretched buyers.

Open interest structure flips: Hyperliquid overtakes Binance

The more telling change is venue-level. Hyperliquid now holds $480 million in ZEC open interest, or 27.6% of the $1.74 billion total, edging past Binance at $460.8 million (26.4%). Hyperliquid's OI climbed 11.6% in 24 hours, the fastest among major venues, while Binance added a slower 6.5%. Bybit sits third at $210 million with an 8.5% gain. The rotation into perp-driven venues suggests this leg is derivatives-led rather than spot-led, and it also means the funding picture matters more than usual.

Funding near zero: no overheating yet

Despite the OI build, funding is ice-cold. The volume-weighted rate sits around 0.006%, with Binance at 0.007% and Hyperliquid at 0.001%. A rally this size usually drags long funding up toward 0.01% or higher; here it has not. That reads as fresh positioning rather than a crowded long, and it leaves room for the move to extend without an immediate squeeze trigger. If funding starts climbing above 0.01% while price stalls, that would be the sign to treat longs as crowded.

The key level to watch is the $872 high from the past 24 hours. A clean break above it with OI still rising would confirm continuation; a fade back under $827 would likely unwind the newly built Hyperliquid positions first. Data as of 22:47 Beijing time, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit, Hyperliquid, Gate, Bitget and other major exchanges.