The past week recorded a significant change in the Bitcoin price action, where there was a momentum-driven rally to the upside of the charts. As of Tuesday, March 10, this move had boosted the flagship cryptocurrency tp reclaim its previous psychological $70,000 level.
Interestingly, the Bitcoin price would go on to reach about $74,000 on Friday. While this might be good for Bitcoin, if at all in the short term, data from a recent on-chain evaluation has been published, leading to the suspicious conclusion that Bitcoin’s market participants are currently not as enthusiastic as they should be.
Negative Funding Rates On Binance Reveal Increasing Short PositioningÂ
In an X post on March 13, pseudonymous on-chain analyst Darkfost reveals that there is a widespread wave of cautious pessimism in the Bitcoin market, despite the most recent bullish performance. As noted by the crypto expert, every rebound of the BTC price seen in March seems merely to be opportunities for short positioning, rather than clear recovery movements. For this reason, there has been a progressive display of negative funding rates on the Binance exchange for close to a week, as shown by the Bitcoin: Funding Rates – Binance metric.
Market disbelief grows while Bitcoin holds above $70K
For now, few investors seem to truly believe in a sustained bullish recovery for BTC. The geopolitical and macroeconomic backdrop remains unfavorable, particularly with ongoing tensions surrounding global oil trade.
In… pic.twitter.com/32UOlrzLkN
— Darkfost (@Darkfost_Coc) March 13, 2026
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Darkfost points out that this is reflected in the extreme readings obtained on the Funding Rates metric, with funding rates slipping under -0.006 both on the 10th and 11th of March. According to the analyst, this significantly negative level indicates that most of the positions currently open on Binance are biased towards shorts, as high skepticism remains among investors on the tenability of Bitcoin’s recovery taking place in the near-term.
Extreme Bearish Sentiment Could Trigger Counterintuitive Bullish Move
Interestingly, Darkfost references historical data to explain that the Bitcoin market could still see a sharp inflow of bullish momentum. This is because, when most traders open clusters of short positions, they open the market to an increasing possibility of a short squeeze.
According to history, Darkfost explains that “when funding rates reach extreme levels or when a strong market consensus forms, it is often too late to position in that direction.” Hence, in the scenario where the Bitcoin price can sustain its recent upside movement, a short squeeze would likely occur.Â
As a result, all of the sell-side liquidity currently sitting above Bitcoin’s market price would become converted to fuel for the upside move, and this in turn could cause the liquidation of even more short positions, further reinforcing the bullish move. Barring a definite move occurring, market participants are therefore advised to retain a more cautious stance in their dealings.
As of press time, the Bitcoin price trades at $70,852 following a 1.09% loss over the past 24-hours.
