Large Bitcoin Investors Increase Long Positions Amid Prolonged Negative Funding

Major traders on the Hyperliquid platform have been accumulating long positions in bitcoin for two consecutive months, with the price trend beginning to favor their stance. According to Glassnode data, the largest traders on Hyperliquid, a prominent on-chain perpetual futures exchange, shifted their positioning from net short to net long in early March and have maintained this long bias throughout April, with its magnitude increasing over time. 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 venue for large traders over the past year, and a sustained long bias from these traders often precedes spot bitcoin price movements by several days to weeks. The early March shift to net long positioning preceded the recovery from the mid-$60,000s, with 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, indicating that shorts are paying longs to maintain their positions. This negative funding has persisted for approximately 47 consecutive days, marking one of the longest periods of bearish derivatives positioning on record. The combination of sustained negative funding and aggressive long positioning by Hyperliquid's large traders creates a technical setup that can lead to short squeezes when spot prices break higher. In other news, the S&P 500 reached a record high on Friday, capping its longest weekly advance since 2024. The scheduled talks between Iran and the US over the weekend did not take place, and developments such as the closure of the Justice Department's probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell may impact the path forward for Hyperliquid's long positions in the coming hours and days.