Bitcoin Whales Intensify Long Positions Amid Prolonged Negative Funding

Over the past two months, the largest traders on Hyperliquid have been steadily accumulating long positions in bitcoin, with the price chart beginning to reflect this trend. According to Glassnode data, the positioning of whales on Hyperliquid, a prominent on-chain perpetual futures exchange, shifted from net short to net long in early March and has remained long since, with the long bias expanding throughout April. This shift coincides with bitcoin's gradual ascent from the mid-$60,000 range in February to a recent brush with $80,000. Hyperliquid has become the preferred on-chain venue for large traders over the past year, and a sustained long bias from this group tends to precede spot bitcoin price movements by days to weeks. The early March shift to net long preceded the recovery from the mid-$60,000s, with the current positioning being the most aggressively long on record. Meanwhile, bitcoin perpetual swap funding across major exchanges remains negative at -0.13% on a seven-day basis, according to Coinglass, 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. In traditional finance, the S&P 500 reached a record high on Friday, marking its longest weekly advance since 2024. However, the weekend's scheduled talks between Iran and the US did not take place, and the impact of these developments on Hyperliquid's long positions will become clearer in the coming hours and days.