NEW YORK, Feb 6, 2026, 15:05 EST
On Bitfinex, leveraged long positions in bitcoin just hit their highest levels in two years, even as the price slid beneath $69,000. Traders appear undeterred, with margin longs jumping to roughly 77,100 BTC—a 64% increase over the past six months, according to CoinDesk and TradingView figures. CoinDesk pointed out that this steady climb in bullish bets may suggest bitcoin still hasn’t put in a clear bottom. 1
Bitcoin pushed back over $70,000 on Friday, recovering from a drop to a 16-month low earlier in the day, according to Reuters. A rally in tech stocks and precious metals gave the token a boost. “It feels like a day of consolidation for risk assets that have been under pressure this week,” said Shaun Osborne, chief currency strategist at Scotiabank. Still, options traders kept snapping up puts — those contracts that benefit as prices decline. “Demand for downside protection is extreme,” said Derive.xyz’s Sean Dawson. 2
Sharp swings have already shaken out leveraged traders. Bitcoin slipped under $64,000 on Thursday, and liquidations of bitcoin positions topped $1 billion that day as borrowed trades got forced out, Axios said, citing Coinglass. “Crypto is now for normies,” Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told Axios. 3
Trading analytics platform Meyka, in a separate note, pointed to the spike in Bitfinex margin longs as a potential contrarian indicator—a wave of dip buying that’s often appeared near previous bottoms. But it didn’t stop there: Meyka cautioned that this kind of leveraged positioning can quickly flip, becoming a rush to exit and sell if prices continue falling. 4
Still, margin-long data isn’t always the clearest signal. A Jan. 29 piece from Cointelegraph pointed out that some pros at Bitfinex lean on margin longs for “cash-and-carry” plays—buy spot, short futures, pocket the difference. When that kind of arbitrage is in the mix, more margin longs don’t necessarily mean traders are outright bullish on bitcoin. 5
But when price moves get this wild, the scale and tilt of leveraged bets really come into play. Margin lets traders amplify their bitcoin exposure—so profits can balloon fast on the upside, and losses pile up just as quickly when things reverse.
If spot prices fall back, those with long positions might get forced out, pushing the decline even further through liquidations and stop-outs. When the unwinding happens quickly, it can send prices lower than fundamentals justify—so traders throw around “capitulation” as both a looming threat and, in some cases, a fresh start.
Meanwhile, when you see a consistent increase in longs, it often signals that larger traders are quietly taking on supply as prices fall—especially if their funding costs stay low. That sort of activity can end up supporting the market, though the price reaction might not be immediate.
Bitcoin no longer sits on the sidelines as some fringe bet; it’s now tracking with the bigger crowd, so it moves with the mood. As leverage builds, a stretch of quiet can break without warning.
