Bitcoin funding stays negative at $78K as short squeeze expectations grow

BTC price action slowly headed upward but funding stayed negative, a unique occurrence that analysis said would result in a short squeeze.

Bitcoin (BTC) sought to match ten-week highs on Tuesday as market participants bet on a new short squeeze.

Bitcoin is due a fresh short squeeze as funding rates uniquely stay negative as price grinds higher, say market pundits.

Short-term targets include a trip to $85,000 in the coming weeks.

Bitcoin bulls still need to clear the nearby 21-week trend line keeping price pinned since October 2025.

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD approaching $77,000 for the first time this weekly candle.

A slight comedown into the Wall Street open meant that price continued to coil below a large area of resistance.

Mixed signals over the US-Iran war continued on the day, with Iran denying that its delegations had arrived in Pakistan for a new round of negotiations with the US. As Cointelegraph reported, markets offered only a muted reaction to the latest closure of the Strait of Hormuz oil route.

Among Bitcoin traders, a sense of cautious optimism was slowly growing.

“A period of consolidation, but clearly upwards pattern,” crypto trader Michaël van de Poppe wrote in an X post. 

Van de Poppe gave a time frame of “two to three weeks” for that level to come into focus, reiterating earlier comments about Bitcoin’s correlation with the Nasdaq.

Others focused on ongoing negative funding rates on exchanges, despite price rising.

“We've never actually gotten one when the chart was grinding up. NEVER. It only occurred during the local BOTTOMS,” trader Osemka noted on X alongside charts showing past negative funding periods.

Osemka suggested that “something is brewing beneath” the surface, just as BTC/USD eyed a reclaim of lost support.

Responding, crypto market intelligence platform Decode agreed, seeing the potential for another short squeeze.

“What this tells you is that the market is heavily short and bearish, and Bitcoin is setting up for a short squeeze. The cannon is loaded, bulls just need to light the fuse…,” it told X followers.

Multiple lines in the sand for bulls lie immediately above the spot price.

Related: Bitcoin can grow 'probably a lot bigger' than $30T+ gold market — Analysis

These include the 21-week exponential moving average (EMA), true market mean, and average buy-in price for investors of the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Trader Daan Crypto Trades observed that price had also filled the latest weekend “gap” in CME Group’s Bitcoin futures market.

“$BTC Closed a big part of the gap from this weekend but still not everything. Market still just following the headlines and no $STRC raises for now. So we will just patiently wait and see,” he commented.

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Source: CoinTelegraph