Bitcoin rose this week, climbing after Tesla
TSLA
Musk sent the bitcoin price much higher as a long-running battle between bullish retailers, organized through the RedSit forum WallStreetBets and Wall Street hedge funds, which briefly hit GameStop shares, which peaked – with the authorities regulators and brokerages trying to calm frantic markets with handed restrictions.
Now, the data revealed Hedge funds are short bitcoin worth over $ 1 billion, even if retailers accumulate in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Traders on the RedSit WallStreetBets forum have raised the price of GameStop shares in recent weeks. … [+]
STRF / STAR MAX / IPx
Hedge funds have risen their bitcoin short positions – actually betting that the price of an asset will fall – since the bitcoin price started to rise in October, data from the cryptographic news and analysis company The Block showed.
The net short position in bitcoin futures is now the largest ever, according to the latest CFTC Traders in Financial Futures report.
The price of bitcoin has risen by about 200% since October, rising to more than $ 40,000 on bitcoin before falling slightly. The bitcoin blistering rally has been largely blamed on institutional investors warming up to cryptocurrency and payment giants such as PayPal
PYPL
PYPL
adding support – although bubble fears arose.
As hedge funds increasingly bet against the price of bitcoin, covering to some extent their long positions, retailers empowered by applications and bored of blockchain speculate on bitcoin and everything else.
“Being locked up at home due to the pandemic blockade and restrictions seems to have stimulated an influx of day traders,” Frédérique Carrier, head of investment strategy at RBC Wealth Management, wrote in a note.
“Investors’ attitudes are influenced by the earnings of securities of high-profile issues. For example, the 35% gain made by Bitcoin in the first nine days of 2021, following a five-fold price increase from March to December 2020; or a six-fold increase in GameStop shares in less than two weeks until January 26; or even Tesla, now the fifth largest in the S&P 500 by market capitalization, with a market capitalization higher than that of the major carmakers in the US, Europe and Japan were combined. “
Hedge funds have been lowering bitcoin more and more since the price of bitcoin started to rise … [+]
The block
EToro brokerage, after adding 5 million users throughout 2020, registered another 1 million in the first month of 2021 – suggesting that the demand for equity and cryptocurrency trading is still growing among causal investors.
Meanwhile, many in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community have rushed to encourage the idea that retailers frustrated by restrictions should resort to encryption.
“As Robinhood stops trading certain assets, such as GameStop and Nokia and Nasdaq president and CEO Adena Friedman, calls for regulations to prevent retail investors from coordinating on social media, the case for cryptocurrencies “, said Nicholas Pelecanos, head of trading at the NEM blockchain platform, said in comments sent by e-mail. “I think we will see a new wave of investors coming over bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies as a result of this disaster.”