Recently, Bitcoin has shown an upward rally aiming to recover to $80,000, but an analysis suggests that it is difficult to be confident about the rally's sustainability due to a sharp decrease in trading volume and negative funding rates in the futures market during this process. According to CoinDesk, Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, stated in a recent report, "Low trading volume and derivatives market data cast doubt on the recent BTC rally. A cautious atmosphere is simultaneously detected behind the superficial upward trend. Therefore, it is more convincing to see this uptrend as being driven by spot buying or short covering, rather than being led by long-term conviction-based investors accumulating leveraged positions." He also diagnosed the phenomenon of persistent negative funding rates in the BTC perpetual futures market, despite recording the highest monthly increase since April 2025, by saying, "The current market is being driven by institutional investors' hedging activities, not individual investors. This is due to structural changes, such as hedge funds short-selling futures for hedging purposes to manage their positions."
