Bitcoin Whales Accumulate Long Positions Amid Prolonged Negative Funding

For two months, the biggest players on Hyperliquid have been building a long position in bitcoin, and the price chart is beginning to reflect their influence. Data from Glassnode indicates that the whale positioning on Hyperliquid, a platform for on-chain perpetual futures, shifted from net short to net long in early March and has remained long ever since, with the long bias intensifying throughout April. This shift coincides with bitcoin's gradual ascent from the mid-$60,000s in February to nearly $80,000 earlier this week. Hyperliquid has become the go-to on-chain venue for large traders over the past year, and a sustained long bias from this group often precedes spot bitcoin price movements by days to weeks. The early March shift to net long preceded the recovery from the mid-$60,000s, and the positioning is now the most aggressively long on record. According to Coinglass, the seven-day bitcoin perpetual swap funding rate across major exchanges stands at -0.13%, indicating that shorts are paying longs to maintain their positions. This negative funding has persisted for approximately 47 consecutive days, one of the longest periods of bearish derivatives positioning on record. The combination of sustained negative funding and aggressive long positioning by Hyperliquid whales creates a technical setup that can lead to short squeezes when spot prices rise. Meanwhile, in traditional finance, the S&P 500 reached a record high on Friday, marking its longest weekly advance since 2024. The weekend's scheduled talks between Iran and the US did not take place, and developments such as the Justice Department's closure of its probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell may impact the Hyperliquid long positions in the coming hours and days.