How do whales place bets?

Bullish on BTC and ETH, bearish on altcoins and MEME, Hyperliquid data reveals the "split" strategy of smart money

As of July 30, the platform's top traders held a total position of $4.6 billion, with long positions at $3 billion and short positions at $1.57 billion, resulting in an overall long-short ratio of 66%.

However, this "bullish" trend is showing structural changes: bullish on mainstream coins, bearish on altcoins and MEME, indicating a split strategy of long-term optimism and short-term conservatism.

Whales have a clear stance on BTC and ETH; for instance, in BTC, long positions reach $1.2 billion while short positions are only $479 million, and the average liquidation distance for shorts is significantly higher than for longs (48.3% vs 14%), mostly being hedge positions. TON and AAVE are also on the bullish list.

In contrast, sentiment on altcoins and MEME coins is extremely pessimistic: the long-short ratios for tokens like FARTCOIN, PUMP, PEPE, SUI, DOGE, and BONK are mostly below 10%, with short positions generally in profit, indicating these assets have become the "harvesting ground" for whales.

Not only are the data diverging, but the strategy styles are also clearly layered: the whale at the top of the profit rankings uses a long-short hedging strategy; although the total positions are balanced, the main profits come from shorting altcoins. The second is an extreme long-term bull, with ETH long positions showing a floating profit of over $7 million, holding positions for several months; while the third focuses mainly on short-term high-frequency short positions, with holding times of less than 2 hours, currently entering a light position wait-and-see state.

Overall, whales remain optimistic about core assets like BTC and ETH in the long term, but are cautious about high-volatility assets and are even actively shorting them, with short-term sentiment being relatively cold.

For ordinary investors, it is more important to focus on these traders' position combinations and risk management methods rather than simply following the crowd.