During the past month, Bitcoin has been on a bull run and broke the important $30.000 level on the 11th of April. While this rise in price has been a boon for all Bitcoin holders, those using leverage on certain crypto exchanges have made particularly large gains.
The leverage ratio used by each trader represents the amount of money borrowed on their total account balance. For example, should a trader use a leverage ratio of 2.50 on an exchange, they are borrowing 2.5 times the funds they have to invest.
According to data collected from CryptoQuant, traders on Bybit, which has the highest bitcoin leverage ratio of all exchanges at 2.50, made a profit of 115.85% during the month of April based on an initial account size of $1,000. A trader who started with $1,000 on Bybit in March would have made a profit of $1,158.50 by the time Bitcoin broke $30.000.
| Exchange | Leverage Ratio | Total Position Size | Bitcoin Price Increase | Profit | Profitability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bybit | 2.50 | $2,500 | 46.34% | $1,158.50 | 115.85% |
| Gate.io | 1.39 | $1,390 | 46.34% | $643.19 | 64.32% |
| OKX | 0.32 | $320 | 46.34% | $148.28 | 14.83% |
| Binance | 0.24 | $240 | 46.34% | $111.22 | 11.12% |
| BitMEX | 0.16 | $160 | 46.34% | $74.15 | 7.42% |
| Huobi Global | 0.16 | $160 | 46.34% | $74.15 | 7.42% |
| Bitfinex | 0.01 | $10 | 46.34% | $4.70 | 0.47% |
| Kraken | 0.01 | $10 | 46.34% | $4.70 | 0.47% |
Gate.io, which has a leverage ratio of 1.39, also saw big gains during this period, with traders making a profit of 64.32%. Assuming a hypothetical account balance of $1000, the average trader on Gate.io made a profit of $643.19.
Other exchanges with lower leverage ratios also saw gains, albeit on a smaller scale.
OKX traders had a relatively low leverage ratio of 0.32 and profited only 14.83% as Bitcoin pushed through the $30k level and amounted to an average profit of $148.28
BitMEX, Huobi Global, Bitfinex, and Kraken, all of which have very low leverage ratios ranging from 0.01 to 0.16, saw traders make profits ranging from 0.47% to 7.42%.
The rally started with a liquidation of $187 million worth of Bitcoin
The Bitcoin short ratio on March 13th provides evidence that the bull run started with a massive short squeeze that liquidated a total of $187 million worth of short trades according to Coinglass.
Source: TradingView
As short traders were forced to close their positions either due to outsized losses or liquidation, long traders saw an initial spike of +19.03% gains on March 13th.
The positive breakout continued to liquidate short positions until the 20th of March and from here the rally was purely fueled by the new positive sentiment.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin traders are positioned for another positive leg up with a high imbalance of long bets according to BTCUSD Short data from TradingView.
