The Bitcoin top traders are still holding on despite a 14% price recovery

The key takeaways

• Binance’s Bitcoin Long-to-Short Indicator hit a new 30-day-low, signaling an abrupt decline in leverage bullish demand.

• US Bitcoin exchange traded funds have reversed their negative trend, bringing in $516m in net flows after a period where they had been heavily liquidated.

BitcoinBTCThe price of () has been fluctuating within an 8% band over the past four trading days. After a sharp drop on Friday to just $60,130, it is now consolidating at $69,000. Traders are currently grappling with the primary catalysts for this correction, particularly as the S&P 500 holds near record highs and gold prices have climbed 20% over a two-month period.

Top traders are likely to be ultra-skeptical after the Bitcoin price fell 52% from its all-time-high of $126,220 in October 2025. This has fueled fears about further declines.

Binance whales, market makers and other investors have gradually reduced their exposure to bullish assets since Wednesday. Long-to-short has dropped to 1,20 from 1,93. This is an indication of the shift. The 30-day-low reading for this exchange suggests that the demand for leveraged positions on margin markets and in futures has decreased, despite BTC’s 15-month low.

The long-to short ratio of top traders on OKX fell to 1.7, down from 4.3 on Thursday. This transition is in line with a leveraged $1 billion liquidation. bullish BTC futuresThis is where participants on the market were forced to stop trading due to insufficient margin. This data point is important because it reflects exits that were forced, rather than bets on further declines.

Bitcoin is still a bull, despite strong ETFs demand

It is clear that the demand for Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) shows no signs of a bearish turn by whales, even though recent price declines.

Bitcoin ETFs in US listed exchanges attracted attention on Friday $516 million in net inflowsThe trend of the three previous trading days was reversed. The conditions which triggered $2.2 billion of net outflows between Jan. 27 and Feb. 5, appear to be fading. One theory that explains this pressure is an Asian fund that collapsed after leveraging ETF options positions via cheap Japanese yen funding.

Franklin Bi is a general partnership at Pantera Capital. He believes that it’s most likely a crypto-native company. The general partner at Pantera Capital noted that metals experienced sharp price corrections when a larger cross-assets margin was unwind. Silver, for example, experienced a 45% drop in seven days that ended on February 5, wiping out two months’ worth of gains. Official data is still pending to confirm this hypothesis.

Bitcoin’s options market also followed the same trajectory. On Thursday, neutral to bearish strategies spiked. The Bitcoin price dropped below $72,000, and traders reacted rather than predicting worsening market conditions.

Related: Bitcoin sentiment hits record low as contrarian investors say $60K was BTC’s bottom

Deribit’s BTC premium put-to call ratio surged Thursday to 3.1, favoring heavily put instruments (sell). However, the indicator is now back to its previous level of 1.7. Over the last two weeks, there has been a low level of demand for BTC derivatives that favor bullish positions. Although sentiments have worsened in recent weeks, lower leverage is a better setup to achieve sustainable gains when the tide changes.

What could change investor perceptions towards Bitcoin remains a mystery, since core values such as resistance to censorship and a strict monetary system remain the same. This isn’t to say that there are no Bitcoin derivatives available. This is a sign of increased uncertainty until we know that the market-makers and exchanges were not affected.