For two months, the largest traders on Hyperliquid have been building a long position in bitcoin, with the price chart starting to reflect this trend. According to Glassnode data, the positioning of whales on Hyperliquid, a perpetual futures exchange, shifted from net short to net long in early March and has remained long since, with the long bias intensifying through April. This shift coincides with bitcoin's gradual ascent from the mid-$60,000s in February to nearly $80,000 earlier this week.
As the go-to on-chain venue for large traders, Hyperliquid's sustained long bias tends to precede spot bitcoin price movements by days to weeks. The early March flip to net long 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 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, 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 other news, the S&P 500 closed at 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 Treasury yields dropped after the Justice Department closed its probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, potentially paving the way for Kevin Warsh's confirmation as the next Fed leader. The impact of these developments on Hyperliquid's long positions will become clear in the coming hours and days.