Bitcoin Whales Hedge Their Bets As Short Interest In BTC Spikes – What Does This Mean For Price?

After breaking past the pivotal $90,000 mark, Bitcoin’s price has remained strongly above this threshold, recording notable gains in the past few days. However, the renewed upward trend is now being faced with growing bearish sentiment from large BTC investors as they load up short positions.

Whales Renew Interest In Bitcoin Shorts

In a shocking shift of sentiment, Bitcoin’s large investors or whales are once again betting against the flagship asset’s recent rally. Alphractal, an advanced on-chain data and investment platform, reported the change in investor mood, pointing to increased concern among these big market players.

According to the on-chain platform, whales are closing long positions around the $95,000 level and displaying renewed interest in short positions. This fresh interest in shorts implies that large investors may be expecting turmoil in the future despite Bitcoin hovering close to recent highs.

While whales are shorting BTC, retail or short-term investors remain focused on bullish narratives and hope for an extension of the ongoing upward trend. The platform revealed the shift in whale sentiment after investigating the Bitcoin Whale Position Sentiment metric. 

Bitcoin Whale Position Sentiment is an effective compass for determining market tops and bottoms because it has a 93% historical association with BTC’s price behavior. Specifically, this cutting-edge indicator monitors the biggest trades, greater than $1 million, on major crypto exchanges as well as aggregated Open Interest (OI). Furthermore, it reveals the positions of major players in crypto derivatives by acting as a sentiment oscillator.

Even as BTC’s price increases, when the indicator begins to decline, it indicates that whales are starting to enter short positions. However, when it begins to climb up, it implies that whales are entering long positions, which is usually followed by price rises.

Following the decline in the sentiment indicator, Alphractal noted that Bitcoin’s price is likely to witness a pullback if the drop persists. As conviction among big investors weakens, BTC market dynamics could be setting the stage for a sustained and volatile move.

It is worth noting that this bearish behavior from whales has been observed in the past few days around $95,000. João Wedson, an on-chain expert and author, stated that the $95,000 mark is now a caution zone due to the high level of shorts.

Critical Areas In BTC’s Price Dynamics

Following the move back into the prior range, Daan Crypto Trades highlighted that Bitcoin has been compressing once more in recent days. As the asset fights to maintain an upward trajectory, a key level below, with the range low and daily 200 Moving Average (MA) is located between $89,500 and $91,000.

On the upside, there is the local high at $99,500, which is approximately the middle range, and the enormous $100,000 psychological area. Daan Crypto Trades contends these are good levels to monitor in the intermediate term. “Currently just a waiting game of where this wants to head next in the short term,” he added.