For two months, the biggest traders on Hyperliquid have been accumulating long positions in bitcoin, now valued at $80,010.10, and the price trend is starting to move in their favor. According to Glassnode data, the positioning of whales on Hyperliquid, a blockchain-based perpetual futures exchange, shifted from net short to net long in early March and has remained long since then, with the long bias expanding throughout April. This shift coincides with bitcoin's gradual rise 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 to weeks.
The switch to net long in early March preceded the recovery from the mid-$60,000s, and the current positioning is the most aggressively long on record. Meanwhile, the seven-day funding rate for bitcoin perpetual swaps across major exchanges is -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.
In traditional finance, the S&P 500 reached a record high on Friday, marking its longest weekly gain since 2024. The weekend's scheduled talks between Iran and the US in Pakistan did not take place, as President Donald Trump canceled his delegation's trip after the Iranian foreign minister left the country before the US group departed.
Treasury yields fell as the Justice Department concluded its investigation 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 clearer in the coming hours and days.