Altcoin funding cools to near two-year lows while open interest holds near October peak
Fewer than 5% of altcoins showed above-neutral funding by October 20, down from nearly 25% in late September, even as most leveraged positions stayed open.
PRICE ANALYSISTRADING
Hana Kimura
10/22/20261 min read
Fewer than 5% of altcoins had above-neutral perpetual funding rates by October 20, down from nearly 25% in late September, TokenPost reported on October 22. That share sits close to the low end of its two-year range. Funding rates are periodic payments between long and short traders; positive readings mean longs pay shorts, which usually reflects demand for bullish leverage.
Positioning has not unwound to the same degree. Open interest was only about 5% below its October peak on a fixed-price basis, and most leveraged positions remained open. The data describe a market where leverage is still in place, but traders are no longer paying a premium to hold long exposure.
The following day showed how that positioning can be hit. On October 23, about $406 million in positions were liquidated over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data cited by crypto.news. Koin Bülteni counted 89,596 affected traders, with long positions accounting for 86.69% of the total. Losses were concentrated in DeFi tokens, while BNB was the only major asset to edge higher.
Bitcoin funding has also stayed subdued. Around the anniversary of the October 2025 crash, Deribit BTC funding ran at about 7.1% annualized, compared with 26.9% before that crash, and total crypto open interest fell from about $154 billion to $142 billion during an early-October selloff, according to figures compiled by Buildix from CoinGlass and other sources.
Source: TokenPost, crypto.news, Koin Bülteni, Buildix.