Sahara AI SAHARA · perps

SAHARA's perpetual-futures market shows elevated funding costs alongside signs of deleveraging. The aggregated funding rate stands at 10.95%, placing it at the 92nd percentile of its 90-day range—an unusually stretched level that signals pronounced long crowding relative to the asset's recent history. This persistently high funding environment suggests longs are paying substantial premiums to maintain positions, indicating asymmetric leverage positioning.

Open interest of $7.1M remains modest in absolute terms, but the directional shifts are notable. Over the past week, OI has contracted by -8.5%, and the 24-hour change of -0.1% shows continued, if slowing, position closure. The liquidation imbalance of -1.00 over the same 24-hour period indicates that short positions are being liquidated exclusively, implying that despite overall deleveraging, remaining longs face price pressure or margin strain.

The leverage risk score of 28 reflects relatively moderate fragility in the current positioning structure. While the elevated funding percentile suggests structural imbalance favoring longs, the combination of declining open interest and shorts-only liquidations suggests the market is already purging excess leverage. The contrast between stretched funding and a low absolute risk score implies the crowding, though historically notable for SAHARA, remains contained by trading volume and absolute position size.