Funding extremes: the most stretched perpetuals

Perpetuals markets are polarized between two funding regimes: shorts collecting dramatic payouts on one side, longs bearing crushing costs on the other. This spread—from HOME's -1325.94% annualized funding down to MINIMAX's 469.96%—captures a market split between crowded short positioning and severely stretched long crowding. The extremes matter because funding this far from zero reflects fragile leverage stacks, rapid position building, and asymmetric liquidation risk across a small cluster of coins.

Key takeaways

• HOME and ACE post the most negative funding rates (-1325.94% and -1086.10% respectively), indicating shorts are paid heavily while longs bear losses—a sign of crowded short positioning.
• On the opposite end, MINIMAX and ZHIPU sustain positive funding near 469.96% and 443.00%, at the 99th percentile of their 90-day ranges, meaning longs are under sustained pressure to pay shorts.
• Open interest is surging across most symbols, with ACE and TLM gaining +192.0% and +60.6% over seven days, signaling rapid leverage deployment into already-stretched positions.
• Liquidation imbalances are mixed: MINIMAX shows -1.00 (all shorts liquidated in 24h), while most others sit near neutral, but the leverage risk scores remain elevated for ACE (80) and TLM (67).

The short-crowded regime: HOME and ACE

HOME and ACE represent the extreme short-heavy end of the spectrum. HOME's funding sits at -1325.94% annualized—meaning shorts are being paid, and longs are paying them. Yet this extreme is only at the 29th percentile of its own 90-day history, so while negative, it is not historically stretched for HOME itself. More striking is ACE, which trades at -1086.10% funding but sits at just the 1st percentile of its 90-day range, meaning this negative rate is historically rare for that coin. ACE's open interest has grown +331.1% over seven days into a base of only $7.1M, suggesting aggressive shorting into a thin liquidity pool. The leverage risk score for ACE is 80, the highest in this cohort, flagging acute fragility.

The paradox here: negative funding typically reflects demand to short, yet ACE is growing leverage rapidly. This mix—steep negative funding combined with rising open interest—can signal either capitulation longs closing positions or new shorts entering at extremes, both historically fragile entry points.

When shorts are paid -1325.94% annualized and open interest climbs +331.1% in a week, the position is crowded and precarious.

TLM presents a similar profile: -1080.17% funding (7th percentile, so not rare historically) paired with +60.6% weekly open interest growth and a leverage risk score of 67. Open interest sits at $8.1M, small enough that liquidations could cascade quickly.

The long-crowded inverse: MINIMAX, AEHR, and ZHIPU

The opposite extreme clusters MINIMAX, AEHR, and ZHIPU, where longs pay shorts heavily. MINIMAX leads at 469.96% annualized funding, at the 99th percentile of its 90-day history—meaning this positive rate is near historically maximum stretch for MINIMAX. Yet open interest fell -1.9% over seven days, and yesterday saw a -1.00 liquidation imbalance, meaning all liquidations in the past 24 hours were shorts. This combination—maximum funding pain for longs, shrinking open interest, and shorts being flushed out—suggests long holders may be weathering capitulation in other leveraged coins.

ZHIPU's 443.00% funding is also at the 99th percentile, indicating structural long crowding. Its open interest is rising (+10.1% in 24h, +27.2% weekly), and its liquidation imbalance of -0.53 shows shorts being pressured out faster than longs. With a leverage risk score of 48, it sits moderate among this group.

AEHR's 471.10% funding and 97th percentile standing complement the theme, though its $291,942 open interest is the smallest here, making it volatile but less systemically significant.

The mid-range outlier: XEC and PEAQ

XEC trades negative at -394.90% but carries the 39th percentile rank, placing it well within its own historical band. Its open interest declined -28.1% in 24 hours yet rose +44.2% over the week, a pattern suggesting intra-week volatility around a building position. A leverage risk score of 24 marks it as the least fragile asset in this list.

PEAQ, at -295.59% and the 2nd percentile, sits in rare short-crowded territory for itself, yet open interest is shrinking (-3.1% weekly). This suggests shorts built aggressively earlier and are now trimming, a sign of stabilization rather than acute stress.

What would change this read

Funding would need to normalize sharply toward zero—a narrowing of the spread between HOME's -1325.94% and MINIMAX's 469.96%. Open interest reversals in ACE, TLM, and ZHIPU (shifting from growth to persistent decline) would signal capitulation of overleveraged positions. Rebalancing of liquidation imbalances—if MINIMAX's -1.00 short liquidation rate reverses to sustained long liquidations—would indicate the long crowding is being flushed rather than compounded. Until those conditions materialize, both extremes remain stretched by their own recent history, trapping traders in pay cycles they cannot easily escape.

*Analysis generated from Quantority's live cross-exchange data pipeline. Descriptive market data, not a trade recommendation.*