Dogecoin news: DOGE futures market shrinks by a quarter since early November as funding turns negative

Leverage is being unwound in the Dogecoin futures market, and faster than for the other large coins. On the OKX exchange, open interest across all DOGE futures fell from around $120.6 million at the start of November to around $89.3 million on Sunday evening, a drop of 26 percent. At the same time, the funding rate on the main DOGE perpetual contract there slipped below zero: at 5 p.m. German time on Sunday, long positions no longer paid shorts but received 0.0119 percent for eight hours. That was the lowest rate of the past four days.

What is documented: open interest, the account ratio and the funding rate come from OKX's public market data, the cross-exchange figures from Sunday morning from an analysis by the trade publication TokenPost, and the price from CoinGecko. Our own assessment follows further down in a separate paragraph: the unwinding takes pressure out of the market, but it does not yet prove a reversal.

Dogecoin traded at around $0.059 on Sunday evening, roughly 0.0535 euros. DOGE has lost 17.2 percent in seven days and 25.9 percent in 30 days. Its market capitalisation stands at around $9.25 billion, which is only enough for 13th place among cryptocurrencies.

Dogecoin open interest: what the metric measures and why it is falling

Open interest is the total of all futures contracts that have not yet been closed at a given moment. When it rises, new leveraged bets are entering the market. When it falls, traders are closing positions themselves or being forcibly liquidated by the exchange because their collateral no longer covers them.

Both have happened with Dogecoin. According to OKX's daily data, open interest stood at $120.6 million on November 5, $111.3 million on November 9, $106.5 million on November 12 and $89.3 million on Sunday. The decline came day by day rather than in a single blow, with the biggest step between Friday and Sunday. That was when the price fell below $0.06.

Part of the decline is pure arithmetic. Because open interest is measured in dollars, it shrinks as soon as the price falls, even if the number of contracts stays the same. DOGE has lost about 18 percent since November 5. Open interest, however, fell 26 percent, considerably more. The difference is positions that have genuinely left the market.

The steepest unwinding among the large coins across exchanges

OKX is not an isolated case. According to TokenPost's analysis, cross-exchange open interest in DOGE stood at $140.1 million at noon German time on Sunday, 8.41 percent less than 24 hours earlier. That was the sharpest decline among the five markets tracked. Solana was down 7.53 percent, XRP 5.73 percent, ether 5.10 percent and bitcoin 3.04 percent.

Negative funding rate: who pays whom on DOGE now

The funding rate is a balancing payment between buyers and sellers of a perpetual contract, a futures contract with no expiry date. If the contract trades above the spot price, longs pay shorts. If it trades below, the payment runs the other way. On OKX it is settled every eight hours.

Until midweek, the rate on the DOGE contract hovered around zero, sometimes slightly positive, sometimes slightly negative. On Wednesday and Thursday, settlements still reached up to plus 0.0549 percent. At 5 p.m. German time on Sunday, the figure was minus 0.0119 percent. Annualised, that is roughly minus 13 percent. Across exchanges, TokenPost reported minus 0.0062 percent per eight hours for DOGE on Sunday morning. Of the five large markets, only bitcoin had a positive rate at that point.

A negative funding rate does not mean that most traders are betting on falling prices. It only shows that the contract is trading slightly below the spot price because demand for short positions outweighs demand for longs relative to volume. Anyone who is short now pays fees to the other side for it.

Dogecoin long-short ratio: 3.9 accounts bet on rising prices

A second figure shows how traders are positioned. The long-short account ratio counts how many accounts with an open long position there are for each account holding a short. For Dogecoin on OKX it stood at 3.9 on Sunday. Just under a week ago it was 5.39, and on Friday 4.49.

Most accounts are therefore still betting on a recovery, but the gap has narrowed. TokenPost counts 70.3 percent long accounts against 29.8 percent short accounts across exchanges. The ratio says nothing about position size, though: an account with $50 at stake counts the same as one with $5 million. Typically, many small accounts hold the long side, while the short side has fewer but larger positions.

That very set-up has cost money in recent days. Anyone who had bet on rising prices with leverage was forcibly stopped out when the price slid below $0.06. That explains part of the shrinking open interest.

Dogecoin since November 9: from the blockchain to the futures market

On November 9, our focus here was activity on the Dogecoin blockchain: 37 percent less DOGE moved on the blockchain than in October. DOGE closed that day at $0.0701 on OKX. Since then, the price has closed lower on five of six days, on Saturday at $0.0574. That is a loss of 18 percent in six days.

What is new is that the weakness is now visible in the futures market too. In early November, the long-short ratio was still rising as prices fell, meaning traders were buying the dip. Since November 10 it has been falling, and open interest with it. Speculators are pulling back instead of adding to their positions.

Dogecoin levels: $0.0554 below, $0.0611 above

Two levels from OKX's daily candles matter for the coming days. On the downside, it is Saturday's low of $0.0554. On Sunday, DOGE fell to $0.0555 and turned higher there, so the level held a second test. If it breaks, the price will be back at June 2023 levels.

On the upside, the first hurdle is the round $0.06 mark, which was narrowly missed on Sunday with a daily high of $0.0596, followed by $0.0611. That is where DOGE closed on Friday before Saturday's sell-off. Only above it would the weekend's slide be recovered.

Why deleveraging affects both directions

A market with less leverage reacts more calmly. There are fewer positions that are forcibly closed during a move and push the price further. That slows crashes, but also fast recoveries, which often come from short positions being covered. With the current short share of just under 30 percent of accounts, the fuel for that is missing.

Our assessment of the Dogecoin futures market

In the editorial team's view, the unwinding is a necessary step, but not yet a signal that a bottom is in. In favour of that reading: open interest has fallen 26 percent, more than the price; the low at $0.0554 held on Sunday; and the negative funding rate now costs short positions money. Against it: almost four long accounts still face every short account, activity on the blockchain has been fading since October, and bitcoin has also lost 14.4 percent over seven days. As long as buyers do not return to the spot market, DOGE is more likely to move sideways than sharply higher. This is an assessment, not a recommendation to buy or sell.

Leverage and crypto derivatives in Germany and the EU: the legal position

For investors, it pays to look at where and how they trade Dogecoin with leverage. Crypto derivatives such as perpetual contracts, futures or CFDs are financial instruments in the EU under the MiFID II directive and do not fall under the MiCA crypto regulation. Since 2018, a leverage cap of 2:1 has applied to retail clients for CFDs on cryptocurrencies, introduced by the European Securities and Markets Authority ESMA and adopted by Germany's BaFin. Anyone trading with 20x or 50x leverage on a platform is therefore either doing so as a professional client or with a provider that is not authorised for German retail clients.

If you are looking for a platform for leveraged contracts, check the authorisation first and compare fees second. Our perp DEX comparison gives an overview of decentralised venues for perpetual contracts, including fees and leverage limits. Decentralised exchanges, however, lack the deposit protection and client safeguards of a regulated platform.

Dogecoin futures: without spot buyers, the push is missing

1. Clarify authorisation and leverage: Check whether your provider is authorised for retail clients and compare fees and funding costs in the perp DEX comparison.
2. Record losses before year-end: Keep spot sales and leveraged trades separate and let one of the crypto tax tools do the calculation.
3. Buy without leverage, if at all: If you want to buy DOGE at $0.059, you can also do so without leverage at a regulated provider; the crypto broker comparison gives an overview.

(As of November 15, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)