While Bitcoin encountered resistance at $77,800 on Wednesday, it then fell to $76,000. This move came after the correction seen in the S&P 500 index and the rise in oil prices to $ 118 as the war in Iran entered its 60th day. While demand for leveraged short Bitcoin futures positions increased in the markets, professional traders on major exchanges continued to keep their long-short position ratios stable.
Funding rates remained negative
Bitcoin’s failure to hold above $78,000 was similar to the S&P 500’s failure to hold on near 7,200 points. Concerns about inflation caused by high energy prices, which limit consumer spending and companies’ profitability, played an important role in investors’ cautious behavior. In addition, the profitability of technology companies’ artificial intelligence investments has also become a matter of debate.
In this atmosphere, Bitcoin’s perpetual futures funding rate turned negative on Wednesday. The day before, the funding rate turned slightly positive from neutral and remained on the positive side for a short time. Normally, this rate remains between 6 and 12 percent, with buyers paying a fee to maintain their positions to maintain balance in the market. When the ratio turns negative, it means that sell positions are dominant.
Bitcoin’s perpetual futures funding rate has been predominantly negative for the past two weeks; This indicates increased interest in leveraged short positions. However, this data does not mean that buyers have completely lost hope; The long-short ratio of professional traders offers a broader picture.
What does the position of institutional traders indicate?
The long-short position ratio of professional traders in major stock exchanges is also carefully monitored. On Binance, this rate rose to 0.80 on Wednesday, marking a small increase compared to Tuesday’s level of 0.75. However, the market still looks slightly sell-side as the ratio remains below 1. Although signs of optimism have been observed from time to time in the OKX exchange in the last few days, it was stated that these movements were not continuous and were short-lived.
In summary, there is no serious change in the positions of large investors in the last week, and the fact that the positions are balanced indicates that no more negativity is spreading among the “whales”.
Macroeconomic factors and purchases
In the statement shared after the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday, it was stated that “inflation is high and the recent increase in global energy prices is effective in this.” Interest rates were kept constant at the level in late 2025. It was noted that at this meeting, four members expressed their opinion in favor of reducing interest rates, and this was the first time in more than 30 years that this had created so many differences of opinion.
The negativity of investors was not fully reflected in the general picture due to corporate purchases. Strategy, one of the important market players that continues to purchase BTC, added 56,235 BTC in the last four weeks. Thus, the company increased its total BTC assets to 818,334. This number surpassed the amount in the portfolio of spot Bitcoin ETF IBIT.
Despite Bitcoin’s retreat to $75,000 on Wednesday, there was no significant change in the overall positions of professional investors. Long-short ratios on major exchanges indicate that investors remain neutral towards price movement, while negative funding ratios in futures indicate that the cautious market atmosphere remains.
