Solana funding hits 11-month high as $1.8B leverage builds

Aggregated funding on Solana perpetual futures has climbed to its highest level since September 2025, according to Velo data. Open interest on Solana perpetuals is near $1.8 billion, equal to roughly 23.1 million SOL in notional exposure at current prices.

Major exchanges including Binance, Bybit, Hyperliquid and OKX report positive funding near 0.01% every eight hours. Positive funding means traders holding leveraged long positions pay those shorting the contracts to keep perpetual prices close to spot. The last comparable funding level occurred in September 2025, when SOL traded above $200.

SOL is trading in the upper $70s, about 2.6% below the $80 level that many technical models treat as the first resistance. A sustained daily close above $80 would shift technical focus to the declining 200-day moving average near $90. A drop back toward the low $70s would weaken the recent recovery structure and increase the risk of leveraged positions being unwound.

On-chain and decentralized finance metrics show mixed signals. Total value locked on Solana protocols stood at about $4.8 billion. The network had roughly 2.05 million active addresses and recorded about 84 million transactions in the past 24 hours. Stablecoin supply on the network is near $15.6 billion. Decentralized exchanges processed around $1.21 billion in daily volume over the same window, and applications on the chain generated about $3.79 million in daily revenue.

Seven-day comparisons show the stablecoin market cap down 0.65%, DEX volume down 5.69% and on-chain perpetuals volume down nearly 27%.

Institutional flows into Solana exchange-traded products totaled about $1.1 billion as of Aug. 7, roughly 2.5% of SOL’s market capitalization. For context, similar products for Bitcoin represent a larger share of Bitcoin’s market cap. Research on staking yields put Solana’s second-quarter staking yield at about 6.25%, with more than 90% of that yield attributed to token issuance rather than fees.

Funding rates apply only to perpetual futures and do not capture outright spot purchases. A sustained positive funding rate is a recurring cost for traders holding leveraged longs. Market participants are monitoring whether spot demand, network activity and ETF flows rise alongside the elevated leverage. Traders are watching several scenarios: a breakout if SOL closes above $80 with improving on-chain metrics and flows; a momentum push to about $90–$92 if price holds above $80; a stall between $75 and $80 if network readings remain mixed; and a deeper unwind if SOL falls through $72–$75 while funding stays elevated.