$PEPE fell 15%, but positions in the futures market barely budged.
A couple of days ago, it was still the most resilient meme coin on X, with people calculating when its market cap would surpass SHIB’s. On Binance spot, it peaked at 0.00000562 on 11/10 and is now around 0.00000445, down about 15% over 24 hours. Over the same period, SHIB is down about 2%, DOGE about 1%, and BTC less than 1%. The drop is specific to this coin.
The strange part is the futures market. The open interest in 1000PEPEUSDT, measured in coins, was about 22.25 billion at 16:00 yesterday and is now around 21.52 billion, a drop of just over 3%. In dollar terms, it fell from about $117 million to $96 million, mainly due to the price decline. There was no period of concentrated liquidations in between. The steepest hourly candle was about -3.6%; the price has been grinding down hour by hour.
Positions are changing hands. The funding rate turned negative from +0.01% yesterday morning, settling at -0.017% at midnight today. The top traders’ long/short position ratio fell from 1.96 to 1.53. Meanwhile, the retail account long/short ratio actually surged to 2.52 at 20:00 last night as the price fell, with traders adding longs; it has now returned to 1.91.
So this isn’t a post-liquidation bottom, nor does it look like panic selling. Shorts are starting to pay funding, and leverage hasn’t been fully flushed out, so the next move will probably be fast: if the price stabilizes and pushes higher, short covering could amplify the rebound; if coin-denominated open interest suddenly gets cut and the price breaks to a new low, that would be a genuine long liquidation. For now, I’m watching open interest in coins and the funding rate—they move before the candlesticks do.
#PEPE #MemeCoin
A couple of days ago, it was still the most resilient meme coin on X, with people calculating when its market cap would surpass SHIB’s. On Binance spot, it peaked at 0.00000562 on 11/10 and is now around 0.00000445, down about 15% over 24 hours. Over the same period, SHIB is down about 2%, DOGE about 1%, and BTC less than 1%. The drop is specific to this coin.
The strange part is the futures market. The open interest in 1000PEPEUSDT, measured in coins, was about 22.25 billion at 16:00 yesterday and is now around 21.52 billion, a drop of just over 3%. In dollar terms, it fell from about $117 million to $96 million, mainly due to the price decline. There was no period of concentrated liquidations in between. The steepest hourly candle was about -3.6%; the price has been grinding down hour by hour.
Positions are changing hands. The funding rate turned negative from +0.01% yesterday morning, settling at -0.017% at midnight today. The top traders’ long/short position ratio fell from 1.96 to 1.53. Meanwhile, the retail account long/short ratio actually surged to 2.52 at 20:00 last night as the price fell, with traders adding longs; it has now returned to 1.91.
So this isn’t a post-liquidation bottom, nor does it look like panic selling. Shorts are starting to pay funding, and leverage hasn’t been fully flushed out, so the next move will probably be fast: if the price stabilizes and pushes higher, short covering could amplify the rebound; if coin-denominated open interest suddenly gets cut and the price breaks to a new low, that would be a genuine long liquidation. For now, I’m watching open interest in coins and the funding rate—they move before the candlesticks do.
#PEPE #MemeCoin
