Bitcoin funding rates had seen a very negative month between mid-June and mid-July. The funding rates, which had previously remained muted, quickly declined below neutral and proceeded to spend the next one month on this level. However, there is a significant change as last week saw funding rates return to neutral. Funding Rate Recovers On Exchanges The bitcoin funding rates had been touching low points as the price of the digital asset struggled. This was concerning given that funding rates were expected to improve as the digital asset began to basically trade at what was described as a “discount.” This would not be farther from the truth, as funding rates fell to their lowest points this June. It indicated that perp traders were still bearish on the cryptocurrency and refrained from moving in. Related Reading | Bitcoin Dominance Dives As Ethereum Takes Up More Space Last week would come with good news as funding rates returned to neutral and stayed there. Binance and Bybit crypto exchanges both recorded funding rate levels of 0.01%. The return to neutral came as the price of bitcoin started a relief rally that saw it break above $23,000. Funding rates return to neutral | Source: Arcane Research Open interest had also followed the same route, although it retraced during the week when the price fell once more. It showed that there is still a lot of leveraging going on in the market since the bitcoin open interest was...
