Is the fuel for the short squeeze already out? BTC, how much farther can it go?

Since April 4, up to today in May 2026, BTC has been surging all the way to $82,000, setting a new high for the year. In just one month, it has also produced a rare situation across the entire market: “everyone shorting, yet prices rising one-way.” The funding rate for perpetual contracts has basically been negative. There was a spike yesterday, but net short positions have indeed fallen sharply—from shorting more and more aggressively as prices climbed to now not even daring to touch the top. Retail investors’ mindset has flipped dramatically, and it has led everyone to ask: BTC, how much farther can it go?

In my view, the driving force behind this round of rally isn’t retail traders’ speculative sentiment, but rather the pricing power has been completely transferred into institutional hands. In April, BTC spot ETF net inflows in the U.S. totaled $2.44 billion in a single month, the strongest performance of the year. Wall Street institutions, through spot buying and locking in key positions, have made it impossible for retail traders’ perpetual contract short positions to shake the upward trend.

On top of that, the “digital gold” safe-haven narrative, strengthened by geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East, and the rising global risk appetite brought by new highs in the U.S. stock market provide real macro fundamental support for BTC’s rise. The change in retail traders’ attitude—no longer daring to short—is precisely what suggests that the core fuel for this short-squeeze rally has been used up. In the past, passive buy orders created by retail liquidations could easily lift prices. Now, the rally can only rely on incremental spot capital coming in with real money.

In the short term, BTC is likely to enter a high-level, wide-range consolidation, or it may use a shift in market sentiment to complete the final push to the peak. As for how much farther it can go in the long run, it ultimately depends on the Federal Reserve’s liquidity cycle and how strongly institutional capital continues to flow in.

For ordinary investors, rather than trying to guess the top and bottom by trading against the trend, it’s better to respect the power of the trend—because the market will always move in the direction that causes most people to lose money. So, do you think the remaining fuel for this short squeeze can reach “80,000-something”?#Gate广场五月交易分享 #BTC回调