Hyperliquid Whales’ Positions Turn Net Short for First Time Since March
Key Facts
Bitcoin whale positions on Hyperliquid shifted from net long the previous week to net short for the first time since March, Bloomberg said, citing a Glassnode post on October 27. The data tracks the platform’s traders’ futures positions, and Glassnode said the group had previously succeeded in building long positions near price lows. The company outlined two possible explanations for the latest shift: traders may be betting on a deeper decline, or they could face pressure on their short positions if prices rise. Glassnode said “time will tell” which possibility explains the change, according to Bloomberg’s report. That puts traders’ positioning at the center of the story, while the direction of the next move remains uncertain in the published information.
A liquidity map Glassnode prepared in its October 21 report shows nearby levels that could interact with positions. The company identified the main sell-wall on Binance’s spot order book between $86,500 and $87,500, describing it as the first heavy resistance. It also estimated the two largest liquidation clusters near $85,000 and $87,000, and pointed to a lower line near $79,600. It said a move toward $87,000 could accelerate if short positions were forcibly closed. These levels remain estimates of liquidity and liquidation points, while the report ties the possibility of acceleration to forced short covering.
Price action in mid-October tested the $80,000 level. Glassnode said Bitcoin’s hourly close fell to $80,100 on October 15, then closed above the cost basis of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs in the following hour. The level had acted as a ceiling for prices in the spring before turning into support in October, according to the report. That same day, the price cleared most of the largest bid cluster on Binance’s order book, centered at $80,000. The bids returned by October 20 but remained below their previous peak. The move shows a test of support and a partial return of bids, while the report does not specify Bitcoin’s price when the positioning shift was detected on October 27.
On coin holdings, Glassnode estimated the cost basis of coins bought 6 to 12 months earlier at about $86,700, down from $88,000 the previous week. It put the cost basis of coins bought one to two years earlier at about $100,000. The company said sales by the older cohort peaked in early October, then fell to less than a third of the number of coins it moved daily at the peak. On-chain, profit-taking slowed in the previous week to about half the pace seen during the week of September’s peak, while realized losses remained steady. These figures describe acquisition costs, coin movements and profit-taking, which are separate measures from the direction of futures positions on Hyperliquid.
On institutional demand, Glassnode said U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took in about $653 million on October 19, their largest inflow day since September 22, while trading volumes remained below usual levels. Coinbase Institutional reported that BlackRock’s IBIT recorded an inflow of about $665 million that day, its largest daily inflow since October 2025. By contrast, Coinbase said stablecoin supply had fallen about $12.7 billion from its May peak and that the seven-day Coinbase premium remained negative throughout October. It added that one-month implied Bitcoin volatility was about 35%, within the lowest 7% of readings since 2019, while 30-day realized volatility was 24%, lower than 97% of readings since 2013. The indicators offer a mixed picture of flows, liquidity and volatility, without the sources linking them to the shift in positions on the platform.
On price levels, Coinbase Institutional viewed the $80,000 to $82,000 range as near-term support and identified $73,000 to $75,000 as the next support zone if the first range failed. It also said about 2.1 million Bitcoin, or roughly one-tenth of total supply, last moved between $87,500 and $91,700, forming an overhead supply cluster. The company said annualized funding rates for perpetual futures rose from 0.1% on October 13 to 7.2% a week later, signaling a return of leverage building. On the monetary-policy backdrop, it reported that U.S. producer prices rose 1.3% month over month in September, their biggest increase since March 2022, and that futures priced in a roughly 80% chance of a rate hike in December. Coinbase identified the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on October 28 as a near-term event and said higher producer prices and the prospect of rate hikes were headwinds for Bitcoin.
The next dates include Strategy’s third-quarter results announcement on October 29, according to Coinbase Institutional. Glassnode said MSCI will publish its final list of index exclusions on November 11, with changes taking effect at the close on November 30. MSCI adopted new rules for non-operating companies on October 15, covering companies that mainly hold investments rather than run operating businesses. These dates put announced events before traders in the coming weeks, while the sources do not specify their impact on Bitcoin’s price. The shift in Hyperliquid whale positions to net short remains the focus of the data, with the possibility of a deeper decline or short positions coming under pressure if prices rise.