Injective [$INJ] climbed 10% in the early hours of October 10 as bullish trading activity intensified. Perpetual buying pressure and outflows from spot exchanges underpinned the move, with traders showing renewed interest in the asset. Alongside the price action, Injective's updated white paper and pending exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications stood out as potential catalysts.

Are $INJ Buyers Taking the Lead?

Across exchanges, $INJ's Taker Buy/Sell Ratio reached 1.14 over the preceding four hours. A reading above 1 indicates that taker buying volume exceeded taker selling volume, pointing to stronger aggressive buying. The metric, however, measures executed trading volume rather than the number of outstanding long and short positions.

The exchange-level breakdown showed that buying accounted for more than half of recorded volume on several major venues, including Binance, Bybit, Gate, BingX, Bitunix, and Hyperliquid, supporting the bullish reading across multiple platforms. The next question is how much exposure traders added alongside those purchases.

Is Rising Exposure Supporting the Rally?

$INJ's OI-Weighted Funding Rate stood at a positive 0.0160%, indicating that longs were paying shorts. Funding rates are recurring payments between holders of perpetual contracts — derivatives without expiry dates — that help keep those contracts' prices aligned with spot markets. That reading points to a bullish positioning bias, though it does not establish that long positions outnumber shorts.

Meanwhile, Open Interest increased by $34.88 million to $164.24 million over 24 hours, reflecting a larger pool of outstanding contracts. Because Open Interest tracks derivatives positions that remain open, an increase during a price advance is generally read as new positions being opened rather than existing ones closing — although it reveals nothing about how long those positions stay on.

Spot exchange flows offered another supportive signal. Cumulative Spot Netflow reached approximately -$.6 million over five days. At press time on October 11, Spot Netflow stood at -$311,000, the largest net outflow since the 9th.

Negative netflows meant more $INJ left exchanges than entered them. Such withdrawals could suggest holders were moving tokens into custody, potentially reducing the supply readily available on exchanges. Even so, exchange withdrawals alone cannot confirm fresh purchases. Taken together, the readings supported the bullish outlook while leaving buyers' intentions partly open.

Can Project Developments Sustain Investor Interest?

Beyond trading activity, Injective published an updated white paper outlining its finance-focused development plans. Its regulatory work included the publication of an $INJ white paper under Europe's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the European Union's harmonized framework governing crypto-asset issuance and service providers across member states. That process was separate from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversight, rather than a regulatory channel between the two.

Meanwhile, 21Shares and Canary have pursued $INJ ETF applications, offering another potential source of investor interest. Decisions on U.S. listings rest with the SEC, whose review process can extend across multiple filing deadlines before an application is approved or declined. Injective CEO Eric Chen has suggested a launch could come before 2027, although that remained his expectation.

Overall, these developments could help sustain interest, but further upside would still depend on demand holding beyond the initial rally. Funding rates, Open Interest, and spot netflows provide a running gauge of whether that demand keeps building.

Summary

$INJ gained 10%, while stronger taker buying, positive funding rates, and rising Open Interest supported bullish positioning. Exchange outflows and ongoing ETF applications added support, although withdrawals alone did not confirm fresh buying.