Funding Rate One Year After 10/10: Open Interest Is Back, the Premium Is Not

One year after October 10, 2025, the derivatives market has rebuilt most of its open interest but not the funding premium that came with it. Deribit Bitcoin funding ran at about 7.1% annualized this week against 26.9% before last year's crash, according to BeInCrypto data republished by Yahoo Finance. Over the same stretch, more than $1 billion was liquidated in a single selloff, roughly $930 million of it from longs.

That combination is the funding rate and open interest story of the 10/10 anniversary. Positioning is large, but traders are not paying up to hold it. For anyone trading perps on Hyperliquid, the difference between crowded and expensive is what decides where the next liquidation cascade can start.

Open Interest One Year After the 10/10 Crash

Last year's event set the reference point. Crypto Briefing puts forced liquidations above $19 billion in about 24 hours, with longs making up roughly $16 billion to $17 billion and more than 1.6 million accounts affected. The same piece notes that on-chain analyses estimate realized trader losses at $950 million to $2.85 billion, because the $19 billion figure measures the notional size of closed positions, not money lost.

Open interest today is not small. CCN, citing CoinGlass, reports Bitcoin open interest up about 4% over seven days to roughly 650,480 BTC, close to the 4.1% five-day build before the 2025 crash. Measured against market cap, the picture is lighter: Bitcoin open interest sits at 3.20% of market cap versus 3.70% before the crash, and Ethereum at 10.40% versus 11.30%.

Total open interest across crypto fell from about $154 billion to about $142 billion during this week's selloff, according to CoinGlass figures cited by Yahoo Finance. That $12 billion drop is the forced unwind showing up in the aggregate.

Funding Rates Tell a Different Story Than Positioning

The funding data is where 2026 breaks from 2025. CCN reports that before last year's crash, annualized Bitcoin and Ethereum funding on Binance and Bybit exceeded 8% on 18 of 32 exchange-days. In the comparable October 2026 window, funding cleared 8% once in 28 observations and turned negative three times. Yahoo Finance adds that OKX funding averaged about 3.5% over the past seven days.

On the morning of October 10, Binance Bitcoin funding was negative, meaning longs were being paid, while Binance BTC futures open interest stood at $7.70 billion, per PerpFinder data in CryptoSlate's weekend outlook on CryptoRank. Options showed the same caution: Sunday's Deribit expiry carried a put to call ratio of 1.77.

Flat or negative funding with heavy open interest usually means positions are hedged, basis trades are running, or shorts are carrying a meaningful share of the book. It is a less fragile setup than a market where every long pays a premium to stay open. It is not a safe one, as this week's long flush showed.

Margin Metrics Are Mixed, Not Clean

The aggregate margin gauges do not agree. CCN cites Coinbase Institutional's October report showing the Bitcoin margin gauge it tracks falling for a fourth consecutive month to its lowest level since August 2024. Yahoo Finance cites CryptoQuant's estimated ratio, which rose from about 0.234 on October 3 to about 0.256 on October 8 before easing to about 0.250.

Both can be true. Coinbase's measure tracks a monthly trend, while CryptoQuant's ratio responds to day-to-day open interest relative to exchange reserves. The short-term read says traders added exposure into the week, the longer read says the market as a whole is carrying less margin risk than a year ago.

The macro backdrop is not calm. CCN reports that on October 7 about $403.58 million in longs were liquidated within one hour as Brent crude traded above $100 and the US 10-year yield reached about 5.284%. Farside data cited by CryptoSlate shows US spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $484.9 million on October 7 and $244.1 million on October 8, before a $21.1 million net inflow on October 9.

Where the Liquidation Clusters Sit Now

With longs flushed, the visible fuel has shifted. Bitcoin.com, citing a Coinglass liquidation map, reports about $3.3 billion of shorts between the current price and $85,000. On the other side, Glassnode places the next cluster of positions near $75,000, according to Yahoo Finance.

Hyperliquid is part of that picture. Bitcoin.com reports a Hyperliquid trader holding a 391.48 BTC short worth $32.36 million at 13x cross margin, entered at an average of $82,863.10 with a liquidation price of $99,801.20. The same report puts that position at about 1% of roughly 38,040 BTC of Hyperliquid BTC open interest. A single wallet that size does not move the market, but it shows that at least some profitable size on Hyperliquid is leaning short into the anniversary.

The asymmetry is the tradeable part. Longs have already paid for this week's drop. Shorts concentrated within a few percent above spot, with funding near zero, are the cheaper side to squeeze if spot finds a bid.

How to Track Funding and Open Interest Into the Next Shock

The CCN piece ends on the right note: whether 10/10 repeats depends on positioning and the next shock, not the calendar. The practical job is watching for the moment funding and open interest start rising together, because that is when the market begins paying to be crowded again.

On Buildix, the screener at buildix.trade/screener tracks Hyperliquid funding and open interest across pairs, so a funding spike paired with an open interest build stands out quickly. The BTC pair view at buildix.trade/pair/BTC adds the liquidation map and CVD, which help separate a short squeeze driven by forced buying from a move with real spot demand behind it.

A year ago, the market was crowded and paying for it. Today it is crowded and refusing to pay. That is a better starting point, and it moves the risk from a long cascade toward a short squeeze the moment the tape turns.