Bitcoin futures funding turns negative as whales stay steady

Bitcoin perpetual futures funding turned negative on Wednesday after BTC was rejected at $77,800 and briefly retested $76,000. The market recorded an intraday low near $75,000.

A negative funding rate reflects higher demand for leveraged short positions in perpetual futures. In normal conditions funding typically runs between 6% and 12% annualized to cover capital costs. Analytics show the annualized funding rate has been mostly negative over the past two weeks.

U.S. equity futures softened on Wednesday and crude oil traded near $118 as the conflict in Iran reached its 60th day. The Federal Open Market Committee kept interest rates at current levels and noted that “inflation is elevated, in part reflecting the recent increase in global energy prices.” Four FOMC meeting members supported a 0.25% cut.

Top-trader measures on major exchanges showed limited change. In the Binance vs OKX comparison, the long-to-short ratio for top traders on Binance was 0.80 on Wednesday, up from 0.75 a day earlier.. On OKX, top traders recorded brief bullish stints several times since Friday, but those moves did not persist. Overall exchange-level long-to-short ratios were relatively steady over the past week.

MicroStrategy acquired 56,235 BTC over the last four weeks, raising its total holdings to 818,334 BTC. The purchases were supported in part by issuance of a perpetual preferred security, STRC. MicroStrategy’s holdings exceed those of a major institutional Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

Market participants note that futures funding and retail leverage patterns can change quickly around macroeconomic events and corporate earnings. Funding remained negative while top-trader long-to-short ratios stayed near recent levels, and exchange data showed no large shift toward outright net bearish positioning.