Why were BloFin ETH longs still paying funding after a 6.62% drop?

Intermediate tier. BloFin figures below were pulled from the public BloFin market data at 3:55 PM ET. Market-wide liquidation totals are CoinGlass figures published Thursday afternoon.

The tape

• US tech and AI stocks sold off hard on Thursday. By 2 PM ET the Nasdaq Composite was down 4.7%.
• On BloFin, the 10:00 AM ET hourly ETH candle opened at 2,341.89 and printed 2,235.47, which is also the 24h low.
• At 3:55 PM ET: last 2,253.38, mark 2,252.25, index 2,253.07. The 24h open was 2,413.22 and the 24h high 2,443.7, so ETH sat 6.62% lower on the day.
• ETH, SOL, XRP and HYPE lost 6%-7% over 24 hours while BTC lost roughly 5.5%.
• Market-wide, about 879.92 million USD of positions were liquidated in four hours, and 818.90 million USD of that was longs. Longs made up 93.07% of the flush.

The funding line

On a BloFin perp the funding rate is charged per funding interval. A positive rate means long holders pay short holders at settlement; a negative rate means shorts pay longs. ETH-USDT settles every 8 hours, the next settlement after that reading was 7:00 PM ET, and the rate is bounded by a cap of 0.75% and a floor of -0.75% per interval.

The formula, plain:

funding_payment = notional x funding_rate notional = qty x mark_price

The worked line

1. Rate at 3:55 PM ET: 0.00021159 per 8h, which is 0.021159%.
2. A long with notional N pays N x 0.00021159 at the 7 PM ET settlement if the rate holds until then.
3. Using the live mark: qty x 2,252.25 x 0.00021159 = qty x 0.4766 USDT per settlement, with qty in ETH.
4. Three settlements in a day at a constant rate: N x 0.063477%. The rate will not stay constant; it is recalculated every interval.
5. The previous settlement, at 11:00 AM ET, printed 0.022%. That one landed right in the middle of the selloff.

Why the flushed side still pays

Funding is a payment between open positions, not a refund for people who were closed out. The accounts force-closed in the 10 AM candle pay nothing further. The longs who survived, or who bought the dip after it, were the ones paying at the 7 PM settlement.

A red day with positive funding tells you one thing about positioning: longs were still the larger crowd. That is the same condition that made the cascade possible. When most leverage sits on one side, a fast move against that side closes the weakest accounts first, and their forced selling pushes price into the next layer of liquidation lines.

One more detail from the same moment: the mark sat 0.82 under the index, so the live premium was slightly negative even while the displayed rate stayed positive. The displayed rate can change before settlement, so check it again close to settlement rather than trusting a reading taken hours earlier.

The levers that move it

• Each interval gets a fresh rate, inside the 0.75% cap and -0.75% floor.
• Funding intervals differ between pairs on BloFin, so confirm the pair's interval before you multiply.
• Funding is charged on notional. Leverage does not change the payment for a given position size; it only changes how big that payment is relative to the margin you posted.

Common mistakes

• Assuming that a red day means shorts must be the ones paying.
• Multiplying the rate by margin instead of notional.
• Treating 0.021159% as a daily cost. It is per 8h, and a day has three settlements.
• Reading one funding print as a forecast. It describes positioning now, not where price goes next.

FAQ

Do liquidated longs pay this funding? No. A position closed before 7 PM ET is not part of that settlement.

Is 0.021159% big? Next to a 4.54% hourly candle it is small. It matters for holding: three settlements at a constant rate add N x 0.063477% per day to a long.

Can funding go negative after a flush like this? Yes, if shorts become the crowded side and the perp trades under spot for long enough. The floor on this pair is -0.75% per interval.

Next time you size an ETH long after a flush, price in the next settlement as well as the stop: notional x rate, every interval you hold.