Crypto funding rates, live across major exchanges

A simple average treats a tiny venue the same as Binance. Weighting each exchange’s rate by its open interest (the size of positions actually open there) tells you what the average dollar in the market is paying to hold its side. That is the number that matters: crowding measured by money, not by venue count.

Professionals read it two ways: the sign shows which side is paying, and the size shows how badly that side wants to stay in. When the cost of holding a position outruns any realistic edge, the crowded side starts looking for the exit, and exits in a crowd are what squeezes are made of.

The spread is the gap between the highest and lowest venue rate for the same coin, annualized. A healthy market keeps that gap small, because arbitrage desks collect it: long the perp where funding pays, short it where funding charges, no price risk, pocket the difference.

The Premium column is the same idea against the spot market: perps trading above spot = longs paying up (long pressure), a discount = shorts pressing. It moves instantly, often before funding adjusts.

So when the spread stays wide anyway, it is telling you something: positioning is so lopsided on one venue that even the arb desks cannot close the gap fast enough. Pros use a persistently wide spread as a stress signal, and the venue driving it tells them where the most trapped positioning sits.

The current rate is what longs and shorts exchange at the next settlement (every 1h, 4h or 8h depending on the venue). It answers the immediate question: what does it cost to hold my position through the next payment?

The annualized view multiplies that same live rate by the number of settlements in a year, so a 1-hour venue and an 8-hour venue become comparable on one scale. Professionals think in annualized terms for carry (is this position bleeding 25% a year?) and in per-interval terms for timing around the next settlement. Same number, two decisions.

The squeeze number is not a forecast. It is a live read of how high the squeeze probability is in a coin’s positioning right now. The number is the historical frequency of a squeeze-sized move after similar readings (typical values run well below 50), and it leans toward a short squeeze or a long squeeze.

The read is calibrated for every coin, so a calm major and a wild altcoin are each measured on a fair footing rather than against one fixed bar. That is why a major and an alt can both register a meaningful number at once.

The timeframe chips ask the same question over different windows: 4h is near-term pressure, 1D is the swing, 1W is the macro build. Different horizon, different answer.

The live rate is a snapshot; accumulated funding is the bill. It sums what one side has actually paid over the trailing week, month or year.

A one-off funding spike and “shorts have bled for a month straight” look identical on the live rate but opposite here. Sustained, expensive crowding is exhaustible, and exhaustible crowding is squeeze fuel. It also tells a carry trader the real yield they are earning, or paying, just to hold the position.