AAVE’s perp on Hyperliquid spent most of August 3 with predominantly positive funding — longs were the paying side. In the prior 24-hour window ending Aug 3, only 3 of 24 hourly funding settlements were negative. Short demand was light.
That changed sharply on August 4. By 04:17 UTC, an earlier ARX snapshot already noted AAVE at −5.01%/yr — the market had begun tilting toward shorts. Over the next 14 hours, short demand accelerated. At 15:00 UTC, a wave of short-side volume pushed AAVE’s price to the day’s low, and funding flipped hard. By 18:00 UTC the hourly rate hit −33.1%/yr — the peak for the day. The 20:25 UTC snapshot shows −25.8%/yr: easing from the peak but still deeply negative.
Over the full 24-hour window ending 20:00 UTC on 4 Aug, 17 of 24 hourly settlements were negative. That is a structural shift, not a brief spike: the shorts arrived in size and have held their position through multiple hourly settlements.
On Hyperliquid, funding is paid every hour between long and short sides. When the funding rate is negative, shorts pay longs at each settlement. The cost is proportional to position size.
| Metric | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Total AAVE OI | $62.72M | Long + short side combined |
| Peak funding (18:00 UTC) | −33.1%/yr | Shorts paid longs at this rate |
| Peak daily cost (at −33.1%/yr) | ~$56.9K/day | $62.72M × 33.1% ÷ 365 |
| Current funding (20:25 UTC) | −25.8%/yr | Rate easing from peak, still negative |
| Current daily cost | ~$44.3K/day | $62.72M × 25.8% ÷ 365 |
| AAVE price (20:25 UTC) | $90.07 | −3.3% from prior day |
| Negative funding hours (4 Aug) | 17 of 24 | vs. 3 of 24 in prior 24h |
Source: Hyperliquid metaAndAssetCtxs and fundingHistory APIs. Snapshot time: 4 Aug 2026, 20:25 UTC. Funding rates reset hourly; values shown are the instantaneous hourly rate annualized (rate × 24 × 365).
At the peak rate of −33.1%/yr, shorts were paying approximately $56.9K per day to maintain their positions. The current rate of −25.8%/yr corresponds to roughly $44.3K/day. Those costs accrue to the long side of the trade every hour. For traders already long AAVE perps on Hyperliquid, the short congestion creates a secondary income stream from funding payments received. For more on how perp funding works as a crowding gauge, see the guide to funding rates and positioning.
AAVE’s price fell −3.3% from its prior-day level to $90.07 by 20:25 UTC. The move is notable but not extreme for an altcoin perp in a day when BTC held near $64K with less than 0.3% price change.
What makes the AAVE move structurally interesting is the asymmetry between the price move (−3.3%) and the short demand surge (funding reaching −33.1%/yr — a level that implies shorts were paying more than 33 cents per dollar of position per year just to stay short). A −3.3% price move, at a funding cost of −33.1%/yr, means shorts need AAVE to continue falling faster than the funding clock ticks to generate net positive returns from the short.
The arithmetic: to break even on a short funded at −33.1%/yr with no price move, the position needs to profit ~0.091% per day just from price alone. At a −3.3% move over 24 hours, the short side captured roughly 36 days of funding cost in price gain — but only if they entered at the top of the day. Shorts who entered during the funding surge at 18:00 UTC (when AAVE had already dropped) are paying the full funding cost on a smaller initial gap to close. See the AAVE market page for current open interest and price context.
Market-structure observations drawn from on-chain data — informational only, not financial advice. Past on-chain patterns do not predict future outcomes.
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Get Signals →Informational only — not financial advice. Past on-chain data does not predict future outcomes. Capital is at risk when trading perpetuals. Data sourced from Hyperliquid metaAndAssetCtxs and fundingHistory APIs (4 Aug 2026, 20:25 UTC). ARX is an analytics and order-transmission platform; at the user’s explicit instruction, ARX formats and transmits the user’s own order to a connected decentralised protocol — ARX is not a counterparty and does not hold user funds. T&C · Privacy Policy.