$NEAR is showing a move worth watching 👀
As of October 2, around 08:15 UTC, NEAR was trading near $4.97, down about 5.5% over 24 hours, while Open Interest on its perpetual market stood around $353M.
The interesting part is the relationship between the two.
Price is moving lower while a large amount of futures positioning remains active. That means the decline is not simply happening in an empty derivatives market.
But here’s the detail traders should not overlook: rising OI by itself does NOT tell us whether new positions are mainly longs or shorts.
For me, the confirmation comes from what happens next: if price keeps falling while OI continues expanding, bearish positioning may be building. If price starts reclaiming levels while OI stays elevated, crowded positioning could become important.
Is NEAR seeing fresh bearish positioning, or are traders preparing for a reversal?
