Whale Instinct: Major Players Outplayed the Crowd on BTC's Path to $80,000

While retail traders were recording losses and exiting the market in March, other industry participants were working in the opposite direction. The largest addresses on Hyper..quid quietly increased their Bitcoin longs — week after week, even when their positions were in the red.

Two months later, BTC broke through the upper boundary of the range and approached $80,000. BeInCrypto's editorial team investigated what was behind this movement.
In early March, whales on Hyper..quid held more shorts than longs. The long/short ratio was 0.97 with a total position volume of about $2.94 billion. By mid-March, the balance shifted to neutral (1.01), and by April 20–22, it stabilized at 1.04 with a volume of $3.45–3.53 billion. Longs accounted for about 51% of the whales' portfolio.
An important detail: in mid-March, longs were unprofitable (minus $20 million PnL), while shorts generated $89 million in profit. Whales were increasing bullish positions against the current price movement.

February and March, Bitcoin traded in a range of approximately $62,000 – $75,000. The fear and greed index in early April dropped to 10 ("extreme fear").

The turning point came in mid-April. On April 9, a ceasefire between the US and Iran caused oil prices to plummet and liquidated $427 million in shorts. BTC broke through $75,000, and on April 22, it reached $79,000 — the highest since February. Currently, the price is around $77,700 and testing the zone of $78,000 – $80,700.
Why Hyper..quid is an important indicator

The platform controls about 60% of open interest among decentralized derivatives exchanges. Positions of large addresses are visible on-chain in real time here. A systemic shift in the long-to-short ratio on such a platform over two months is a significant signal.
Whale positioning on Hyper..quid is not the only bullish signal. Several metrics have recently turned in favor of buyers:

ETF inflows: spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $1.32 billion in March and over $1.6 billion in less than April.
Strategy purchases: the company bought 34,164 BTC for $2.54 billion — the largest deal since November 2024.
Open interest: BTC futures OI reached $61 billion — a multi-month high.
Funding rates turned positive for most tokens.
Market sentiment: the fear and greed index rose to 61 ("greed territory").