Leveraged Funds Cut Bitcoin Futures Net Shorts by Nearly 15%

Leveraged funds pared their net short position in Bitcoin (BTC) futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) by nearly 15% through Oct. 13 as prices fell and offsetting positions grew.

Across CME’s standard and micro contracts, the funds held a net short position of about 30,611 BTC equivalent on Oct. 13, down from about 35,903 BTC equivalent a week earlier. A standard contract represents 5 BTC, while a micro contract represents 0.1 BTC. Converting both to BTC equivalent adds the micro contracts to earlier coverage of standard-contract positions.

Outright shorts declined by 6,437 BTC equivalent to about 59,458 BTC equivalent. Outright longs also fell, by 1,145 BTC equivalent to about 28,847 BTC equivalent. Shorts remained more than twice as large as outright longs despite the narrower gap. The futures figures do not show whether the funds bought Bitcoin in the spot market.

Spread positions moved in the opposite direction. These offsetting futures longs and shorts are recorded separately from outright positions. Spread exposure rose by 2,719 BTC equivalent per leg to roughly 8,434 BTC equivalent per leg, an increase of about 48%. Outright longs and the long legs of spreads together increased by roughly 1,574 BTC equivalent over the week, even though outright longs declined. That calculation does not establish a larger outright bet on a price increase.

Bitcoin’s UTC daily close fell from $85,540 on Oct. 6 to $83,115 on Oct. 13, a decline of about 2.8%. Open interest, or outstanding contracts, decreased about 3.2% across the two CME products. In a separate trader category, asset managers increased their net long position by 547 BTC equivalent to roughly 18,440 BTC equivalent.

The Oct. 13 snapshot predates Bitcoin’s later move toward $80,000 and cannot show how funds positioned after that date. The next weekly snapshot, ordinarily covering Oct. 20 positions, is scheduled for release at 3:30 p.m. ET (19:30 UTC) on Oct. 23.