ETH Funding Near Zero as BTC Holds +6%/yr on Hyperliquid

Quick Take
ETH perp funding on Hyperliquid has trailed BTC on four of the past five days, with the gap reaching −6.4%/yr on August 3 — the widest in this stretch. BTC is at +6.2%/yr; ETH has dropped to near zero (−0.2%/yr). ETH’s $1.74B open interest — 79% of BTC’s $2.21B despite one-sixth the market cap — carries no bullish premium. BTC longs are paying for the right to hold; ETH longs are not. Snapshot: 3 Aug 2026, 08:17 UTC.
ETH Funding APR
−0.2%
BTC Funding APR
+6.2%
ETH Open Interest
$1.74B
BTC Open Interest
$2.21B

Five-Day Funding Spread

Date (UTC)BTC Avg APRETH Avg APRSpread (ETH − BTC)
Jul 29+8.0%+4.4%−3.6%
Jul 30+5.1%+4.5%−0.6%
Jul 31+7.0%+3.4%−3.6%
Aug 1+5.0%+5.5%+0.5%
Aug 2+10.7%+5.5%−5.2%
Aug 3 (current)+6.2%−0.2%−6.4%

Daily averages from Hyperliquid fundingHistory API (hourly records). Aug 3 current = instantaneous rate from metaAndAssetCtxs. Snapshot: 3 Aug 2026, 08:17 UTC.


MarketPrice24hOpen InterestFunding APR
ETH$1,831−1.91%$1.74B−0.2%
BTC$62,350−1.54%$2.21B+6.2%
SOL$72.39−1.27%$298M+11.0%
HYPE$52.38+0.91%$1.20B+11.0%

Sources: Hyperliquid API. Snapshot: 3 Aug 2026, 08:17 UTC.

What the Data Shows

On Hyperliquid, funding is the hourly cost charged between longs and shorts to keep the perpetual price anchored to the spot oracle. When funding is positive, longs pay shorts — the market is net-long and bullish conviction is being priced. When funding falls to zero or negative, shorts pay longs, indicating a tilt toward bearish positioning.

BTC longs are paying consistently. BTC funding has ranged +5–11%/yr across the five days ending August 3, touching +10.7%/yr on August 2. When BTC’s hourly rate hits +0.0013%/hr (+11%/yr), it indicates the perp mark price is capped at or above the spot oracle — bulls are holding at a premium and paying for it.

ETH longs are not. ETH funding ranged 3.4–5.5%/yr across four of those five days — consistently below BTC — before dropping to near zero on August 3. At −0.2%/yr, the perp sits at roughly oracle parity with a faint net-short lean. ETH’s $1.74B open interest is high in absolute terms — 79% of BTC’s $2.21B — yet carries none of the bullish surcharge BTC’s OI carries. On a market-cap basis the contrast is sharper: ETH OI/market cap is approximately 4× higher than BTC’s, meaning more contracts outstanding per dollar of underlying value, with less directional conviction embedded in the rate.

The spread widened on Aug 2, not narrowed. After a brief reversal on Aug 1 (ETH briefly led BTC by +0.5%/yr), the spread reached −5.2%/yr on Aug 2 and is now −6.4%/yr intraday on Aug 3 — the widest point in this stretch.

Market Context

Both BTC and ETH are falling on August 3 (−1.54% and −1.91% respectively) despite news that Iran–US talks are set to resume Monday. ETH is underperforming BTC on price and on funding simultaneously, a two-dimensional cost-structure signal. SOL and HYPE are running +11%/yr funding — meaning longs are paying significantly more to hold those positions than ETH longs are paying to hold ETH. ETH at near-zero funding and BTC at +6.2%/yr represents a within-crypto divergence in how much long exposure traders on Hyperliquid are paying to maintain.

This is a cost signal, not a directional verdict. Funding measures what market participants are currently paying to stay positioned — not where the price will go. A persistent negative ETH funding environment means longs are being paid to hold. Past instances have seen this condition end through OI reduction as positions unwind, or through spot price movement — but past on-chain patterns are not indicative of future outcomes, and this snapshot does not imply a directional forecast.

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Market-structure observations drawn from on-chain data — informational only, not financial advice. Past on-chain patterns do not predict future outcomes.

Funding rate data updated throughout the day on ARX Telegram.

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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 API. 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. Snapshot: 3 Aug 2026, 08:17 UTC. T&C · Privacy Policy.