Coinbase Markets: 64% of Bitcoin (BTC) Net Longs Entered Above Spot Price

Coinbase Markets Flags $81,993 Long Cluster

Coinbase Markets reported on Saturday that the largest cluster of net long Bitcoin (BTC) positions was opened at an average entry of $81,993, and that 64% of net long notional was established above the level where the asset changes hands in spot trading. In a post on X, the exchange's markets desk put the session's question directly: “Do they add or fold?” The post carried a chart of net open positioning by average entry price, showing that the bulk of tracked long exposure in the Bitcoin market sits at prices the coin no longer commands.

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The warning carries weight because of how leveraged longs behave. A position opened through margin trading does not simply absorb a drawdown: once its collateral falls below the venue's requirement, the trade is closed automatically in a liquidation, converting a paper loss into coins sold on the market. That is the mechanism now bearing on the cluster Coinbase described. Timing sharpens it. Bitcoin price stood at $80,595 when the post went out at 12:45 UTC, already 1.5% lower on the day, and it has eased further since, changing hands near $79,588 at the time of writing, about 2.5% down over 24 hours. The retreat extends a selloff that gathered pace earlier in the week. Because most tracked long notional was opened above the current price, a large share of leveraged buyers is underwater. If those accounts cut exposure, their exits add selling pressure; if they add instead, fresh bids could help the price reclaim the $81,993 entry zone. Coinbase's flow data covers institutional and professional accounts, the segment whose entries set the levels other traders watch.

Longs Absorb $346 Million of Liquidations

Derivatives data shows the damage is already being booked. Across the crypto market, $481.25 million in positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, and longs took $346.15 million of that total. Bitcoin (BTC) accounted for $95.06 million of the closures, with long positions making up $85.90 million against just $9.16 million from shorts. The imbalance means the week's decline has fallen hardest on traders who bought with leverage rather than on those betting against the market. Any further slide risks more forced closures, which would convert a gradual decline into a steeper one as closed longs reach the market as sell orders.

Options pricing points the same direction. In a separate post, Coinbase noted that BTC's 25-delta skew stands at 11.3% for one day, 10.5% for one week and 10.8% for one month, against 3.9% at one year. Puts carry richer implied volatility than comparable calls across every maturity, meaning hedgers are paying up for short and medium-term downside protection while treating year-ahead risk as far smaller. The path from here runs through the choice Coinbase framed: traders leveraged into the pullback can add at lower prices, fold their positions, or extend their HODL through the drawdown. One recent read from the technical side placed the next defended floor near $74,000, where a higher-low call by analyst Killa argues the broader uptrend remains intact.

Our composite support and resistance scoring frames the session as a test of one line: support at $79,550, where several indicators converge for a score of 71 out of 100, sits a few dollars under the live price of $79,588. The nearest strong resistance is $81,721, scored 83 out of 100, a band that effectively contains the $81,993 cluster average, so a move through it would put most tracked long notional back in profit. Positioning is not crowded: perp funding runs at 0.0028% and the long/short account ratio stands at 2.34, with 70.1% of accounts long, alongside a sideways trend read. Combined with Bitwise's bull-bear divide at $82,000, that band is the decisive zone: reclaim it and the underwater cluster is relieved, lose $79,550 and the long side regroups from a weaker base.