Raydium Rises 14% as Negative Funding Signals Bearish Positioning

Raydium (RAY) rose 14% in 24 hours and remained more than 150% above its early-September level, while negative perpetual-contract funding pointed to increased short positioning during the rally.

RAY traded near $0.90 before breaking out on Sept. 5 and reached as high as $2.56 on Oct. 7. The token later retreated to $2.31 but had still more than doubled over the month.

Open interest climbed from about $13 million to more than $20 million during the advance, indicating that more capital entered perpetual contracts as the token gained. Open interest later fell to about $16.3 million.

Funding dropped to -0.20% during the rally and remained negative at -0.08% afterward. Under the market convention, negative funding means short positions pay long positions. The reading can indicate bearish positioning in perpetual contracts, but it does not determine RAY’s next price move.

Momentum indicators also moderated. RAY’s relative strength index stood at 66 after exceeding 80 in September. Chaikin Money Flow remained positive at 0.06 but was below its September highs.

Trading activity involving tokenized stocks on Solana provided additional market context as RAY advanced. Such stocks generated $12.4 billion in decentralized-exchange volume this year, with about $6.1 billion passing through Raydium’s pools. Meteora handled $2.3 billion, while Orca processed $1.2 billion.

Raydium’s tokenized-equity volume reached about $260 million in September, up from less than $40 million in August. NVDAx, a tokenized version of NVIDIA, was the most traded ticker among 116 assets.

The combination of a strong spot-market rally and negative perpetual funding leaves market positioning divided. Price momentum remained positive, while derivatives traders increased short exposure during the advance.