ZEC Hits $942, OI +30% to $1.98B: Shorts Bleed $24.5M
ZEC Up 17% to $942 as Shorts Cover
Zcash (ZEC) trades near $942 on Binance, up 16.9% over 24 hours, with OKX printing the same level at $942.25. The move started as a short squeeze: shorts absorbed $24.5M of the $26.4M liquidated over the past day, so roughly 93 cents of every dollar wiped out was a short position. Price tagged an $805 low earlier before reversing, and the 24-hour range stretched from $805 to about $970-973, a swing past 20%.
Open Interest Climbs 30% to $1.98B
This is not a pure covering bounce. Total open interest rose 30% to $1.98B, meaning fresh leverage is piling in as price climbs. Binance still holds the biggest slice at $550.8M, about 27.9% of the market, up 29.8% over 24 hours and 22.7% in the last four hours alone. Hyperliquid sits nearly at parity with $510.7M, up 30.2% on the day and 24.3% in four hours. OKX grew the fastest at +50.2% in 24h, while Bybit added 19.1% and Bitget 26%.
Funding Positive but Not Aggressive
Funding rates on Binance, Bybit, Gate and HTX all sit at 0.01% per eight hours, which is the exchange ceiling and a mild level for a move this size. Bitget and BingX have actually flipped negative to -0.0094%, a sign some traders still expect a fade. Capped funding plus rising OI reads as new longs chasing momentum rather than a violent squeeze fee, and that is a different risk profile than an overheated top.
What to Watch Next
The setup is leverage chasing strength after a 20% intraday range. Reversals can arrive just as fast, and any flush below recent support would hit the newest longs first. Watch whether funding stays pinned at the cap and whether the coin holds above $900. A close under $870 would reopen the path toward the $805 low; above the $970-973 high, the squeeze could extend quickly because shorts are still stacked. For now momentum and short covering are aligned, but the OI pileup makes the next $100 move in either direction expensive for someone.
Data as of Beijing time 01:20 on September 4, 2026, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit, Hyperliquid, Gate, Bitget and other major exchanges.