Major Bitcoin Investors Increase Long-Term Holdings as Funding Remains Strongly Negative

For the past two months, major traders on Hyperliquid have been accumulating long positions in bitcoin, and the price trend is starting to reflect this. According to Glassnode data, the largest traders on the on-chain perpetual futures exchange shifted from a net short to a net long position in early March and have maintained this stance ever since, with the long bias growing throughout April. This shift coincides with bitcoin's gradual increase from the mid-$60,000s in February to nearly $80,000 earlier this week. Hyperliquid has become the go-to on-chain platform for large traders over the past year, and a sustained long bias from this group often precedes spot bitcoin price movements by days or weeks. The switch to a net long position in early March preceded the recovery from the mid-$60,000s, and the current positioning is the most aggressively long on record. Meanwhile, bitcoin perpetual swap funding across major exchanges is -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 scheduled talks between Iran and the US over the weekend did not take place, and the impact of these developments on Hyperliquid's long positions will become clear in the coming hours and days.