Abraxas Capital, Wintermute Hold 3,425 Bitcoin (BTC) Short on Hyperliquid

Trading Firms Stack $265M in Short Perpetuals

Three of crypto's largest proprietary trading desks are profiting from the Bitcoin (BTC) rally without taking a directional view, on-chain data shows. Abraxas Capital, Fasanara Capital and Wintermute collectively hold short perpetual positions of 3,425 BTC — roughly $265 million — and 138,569 ETH, about $338 million, on the on-chain derivatives exchange Hyperliquid. The shorts function as hedges for cash-and-carry structures rather than outright bearish bets, and they landed just as directional traders got hurt: last week's run from around $62,000 to above $77,000 liquidated roughly $3 billion in leveraged short positions.

The bearish bets had been accumulated during the market's prior drawdown from all-time highs above $120,000, and the squeeze that unwound them flipped funding firmly positive overnight — reopening the window for market-neutral yield strategies. The spot leg of the trade is visible on public ledgers too: on-chain flows show Abraxas Capital withdrawing 73,872 ETH — approximately $173 million — from Binance over the past four days, behavior consistent with a desk building whale-scale spot inventory to pair against derivatives shorts. Institutional scale is showing up on regulated venues as well. CME bitcoin futures open interest climbed from roughly 87,000 BTC to 122,000 BTC in recent weeks, according to Glassnode data, on the exchange most used by institutional and ETF-linked capital — and hedge funds there have flipped net long, a rare posture for a cohort the basis trade structurally keeps short. The appetite extends beyond basis desks, alongside moves such as Charles Schwab placing Bitcoin at the core of a five-coin portfolio.

Inside the Cash-and-Carry Playbook

The structure — known in institutional circles as a cash-and-carry, or basis trade — pairs a spot position with an equal short in perpetual futures. Because the two legs offset, the desk carries almost no price risk; the return comes from the funding rate, the periodic payment longs owe shorts whenever the perp market trades rich to spot. Perpetual funding across major venues currently sits near 0.01% per eight hours for BTC, an annualized yield in the high single digits — modest per dollar, but material at nine-figure scale. Derivatives analytics put the 30-day average BTC funding rate at 6.7% annualized as of Aug. 24, with the 7-day average at 8.7% — a sharp recovery from the February-through-July stretch, when funding spent months compressed or negative as leveraged longs were steadily unwound and the carry trade stopped paying.

A second yield source compounds the picture: the basis itself. Futures frequently trade at a premium to spot during bullish phases, so a desk that buys spot and shorts the futures captures the convergence at expiry as spread income. The carry is now rich across the majors — Solana among the assets showing elevated funding — which is why these strategies proliferate precisely when retail leverage chases upside. The accumulation backdrop supports the structure: our earlier coverage noted Bitcoin's realized cap expanded by $4.6 billion in a single week. The main fragility traders flag is timing — when leveraged longs crowd in before price confirms the move, a momentum stall can flush carry books on both sides. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on MEXC.

$78,695 Resistance Is the Line to Watch

COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine puts spot at $78,658, up 1.40% over 24 hours and pressing directly on the strongest ceiling in our model: the $78,695 resistance scores 96/100, driven by the confluence of Ichimoku Tenkan, the R1 pivot, a low-volume node and Fibo 0.114. First support at $77,808 carries an 83/100 rating from Flip R→S, Fibo 0.214 and HVN sources. Positioning is mildly crowded — funding at 0.0058%, open interest of $15.33 billion and a long/short account ratio of 1.16 (53.6% long) — while the Fear & Greed Index reads 69 (Greed) and RSI at 71.78 flags stretched momentum, echoing the stall near $78K we tracked earlier. A daily close above $78,695 opens the 70/100-rated $80,598 level; losing $77,808 would invalidate the near-term bullish structure.