Highest leverage risk in crypto perpetuals right now

ACE is flashing the highest leverage risk score in crypto perpetuals right now. A composite risk of 80 reflects an extreme funding environment combined with explosive open interest growth that has created a fragile, crowded short position vulnerable to cascade liquidations. The data snapshot from 2026-07-20 reveals a market segment where funding rates have inverted to punitive levels and traders are piling leverage into positions that could unwind violently if momentum reverses even briefly.

Key takeaways

• ACE's leverage risk score of 80 is the highest in the cohort, driven by an aggregated funding rate of -1086.10% — shorts paying longs at an annualized extreme — combined with +192.0% open interest growth in 24 hours.
• TLM ranks second at a risk score of 67, supported by similarly extreme funding of -1080.17% but slower OI momentum (+65.0% in 24 hours), suggesting less acute liquidation pressure despite crowded short positioning.
• MOCA and AEHR represent a different risk signature: positive funding rates at 10.95% and 471.10% respectively, both in the top of their 90-day ranges (100 and 97 percentile), indicating stretched long positioning rather than short-side extremes.
• All eight coins show zero liquidation imbalance over 24 hours, suggesting either balanced two-sided liquidations or a lag before cascade events materialize.

The short-squeeze trap in ACE and TLM

ACE and TLM both carry inverted funding rates at scales rarely seen in crypto derivatives. ACE's funding of -1086.10% places it at the 1 percentile of its own 90-day history — meaning this is among the most extreme readings in recent months. TLM mirrors this, with funding at -1080.17% and a 7 percentile rank. When shorts are paying longs this aggressively on an annualized basis, it signals that short positions have become saturated; traders are being paid to hold them because supply vastly exceeds demand.

When shorts are paying longs at -1086.10% annualized funding, the market is pricing in acute scarcity of fresh short interest — and crowded shorts are most vulnerable to forced covering.

Yet ACE's risk score of 80 exceeds TLM's 67 because of the velocity of leverage accumulation. ACE's open interest surged +192.0% in just 24 hours and +331.1% over the past week. TLM's momentum is measurably slower: +65.0% daily and +60.6% weekly. This difference matters. ACE traders are deploying fresh capital into an already-inverted funding environment at an accelerating pace, which tightens the coil further. When a position unwinds at that speed, liquidation cascades can exceed available liquidity.

The stretched long position in MOCA and AEHR

MOCA and AEHR tell a complementary story: positive funding rates, but stratospheric percentile ranks. MOCA carries a 10.95% funding rate — longs paying shorts — yet sits at the 100 percentile of its 90-day range. This means that while longs are currently paying, the *level* of long crowding is the highest it has been in three months. MOCA's open interest grew +33.1% in 24 hours and +14.8% weekly, modest by ACE standards but still inflowing.

AEHR presents an even sharper signal: its 471.10% funding rate places it at the 97 percentile, indicating historic extremity in long positioning pressure. Longs are paying at rates that rival any major market dislocation. Yet AEHR's notional open interest is the smallest in this cohort at only $291,942, which paradoxically heightens fragility — thin liquidity combined with extreme funding can trigger violent repricing on modest volume.

Both coins show elevated risk scores (62 and 60 respectively) because stretched funding at historic percentiles, even without the velocity of ACE, points to positions that are overextended relative to their recent norms.

Divergent deleveraging: G and TRADOOR

G and TRADOOR stand apart as the only coins showing declining open interest. G's leverage risk score of 61 is supported by a -124.25% funding rate at the 2 percentile — inverted but far less extreme than ACE or TLM — paired with declining OI of -14.8% daily and -9.0% weekly. This suggests traders are actively unwinding short exposure, which should ease pressure.

TRADOOR presents an anomaly: despite a benign 10.95% funding rate at the 0 percentile (historic lows for longs paying), its risk score is 66 — second only to TLM. This is driven by mixed momentum: -25.1% OI decay in 24 hours offset by +38.7% weekly growth. The inconsistency — shrinking positions over one day but building over seven — may reflect micro-market churn or a lag in settlement visibility.

What would change this read

ACE's extreme leverage risk would dissolve if aggregated funding normalized upward (moving away from -1086.10% toward positive or near-zero levels), signaling that fresh short demand had emerged and the scarcity premium had lifted. Open interest decelerating materially — ACE's +192.0% daily shrinking to single-digit daily growth — would also indicate that leverage accumulation had stalled.

For MOCA and AEHR, a collapse in their funding percentile ranks (MOCA falling from 100, AEHR from 97) toward the median of their recent range would signal that long crowding had eased. If liquidation imbalance shifted sharply negative (shorts liquidating faster than longs), it would suggest that short-side forced selling was draining liquidity and depressurizing the market.

Any meaningful reversal in these conditions — funding normalization, OI momentum deterioration, or liquidation rebalancing — would lower the composite risk scores and reduce cascade probability.

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