Crypto derivatives traders are tilting bearish: data from Glassnode shows the Bitcoin perpetual futures funding rate has recently turned negative, signaling that short positions currently dominate the market.
Glassnode analyst Chris Beamish flagged the shift on X, sharing a chart of the 3-day moving average of the funding rate. The funding rate is a periodic fee exchanged between longs and shorts on centralized derivatives venues. When the metric is positive, longs pay a premium to shorts—an indication that bullish sentiment and long exposure are prevailing. When it falls below zero, shorts are paying longs, which implies a predominance of bearish bets.
Beamish’s chart also highlights an intriguing dynamic from earlier this year: the 3-day MA remained positive even while spot BTC prices were in a downtrend, suggesting perpetual futures traders were betting on a reversal back to a bullish market. In March, Bitcoin showed signs of stabilization and staged a recovery, but the funding-rate picture has flipped—shorts have reasserted themselves, and that stance persisted even during Bitcoin’s recent push above $75,000.
That dominance matters because whichever side of the market is larger is generally more vulnerable to mass liquidations if price moves sharply against it. During the prior downtrend, longs were squeezed; with shorts now in the majority, a sudden move higher could put them at risk of cascading liquidations.
On-chain data adds another angle. Glassnode’s latest weekly report highlights a supply gap on the UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD) between roughly $72,000 and $82,000. The URPD maps where current coin supply last moved across past price levels. A “chasm” near recent prices means relatively few coins have a cost basis in that range, so there’s not a lot of on-chain supply sitting with break-even sell pressure until about $82,000.
That absence of concentrated on-chain resistance could, in theory, make it easier for price to climb through the band—yet Bitcoin’s recent attempt to push higher still failed, underscoring that order-book and derivatives dynamics can counterbalance on-chain conditions.
Price update: Bitcoin retraced after the move and is trading near the $70,400 mark following the latest pullback. Traders and analysts will likely keep a close eye on funding rates and the URPD gap for clues about where short-term pressure and potential liquidation risk may emerge.
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