$BTC Most people think that long short does not affect the real price of Bitcoin because they do not own the real token.
-True, that statement is somewhat correct in nature, but not complete. Let's explore further together.
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1. Long/short derivative trading (futures) DOES NOT involve owning the real token.
When you long or short BTCUSDT on Binance Futures, you are not buying or selling real BTC — it's just a contract based on price.
Therefore, your trading itself does not directly impact the supply of real BTC.
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**2. But derivative trading still affects the market price!
Because exchanges like Binance, Bybit, etc., use a marking price mechanism (Mark Price) based on the spot price.
However, when the derivative market has too many unbalanced long/short positions:
The funding rate will adjust (longs have to pay fees to shorts or vice versa).
Whales and market makers can take advantage of this imbalance to push the spot price in a direction that causes mass liquidations (for example, short squeeze or long squeeze).
When a large number of orders are automatically liquidated, the system will buy/sell real on the spot exchange to match, thereby putting pressure on the real price.
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In summary:
Long/short futures do not directly trade real BTC.
But when it becomes large and unbalanced enough, it can push the real (spot) price to change — due to the influence of liquidations, panic, FOMO, and manipulation.
