Long

The term comes from traditional securities markets, where "long" describes an investor who actually owns the underlying asset, as opposed to a short seller who has borrowed and sold it. In crypto, going long is the default, low-complexity trade: buy a coin on the spot market and hold it, hoping demand pushes the price higher before you sell. There is no borrowing involved, no expiry date, and the maximum loss is capped at 100% of the amount invested, while the potential upside is theoretically unlimited.

Traders can also go long with leverage, most commonly through perpetual futures contracts that never expire and track the spot price through periodic funding payments between longs and shorts. Leverage multiplies both gains and losses: a position opened with 10x leverage can be wiped out by roughly a 10% adverse price move, and at 100x leverage a swing of just 1% can trigger liquidation. When funding rates turn strongly positive, it usually signals that longs have become "crowded," a warning sign that a sharp reversal could cascade into forced liquidations across the market.

Common ways traders express a long view include:

• Buying spot Bitcoin or another coin outright on an exchange.
• Opening a leveraged long on a perpetual futures or options platform.
• Using leveraged tokens that automatically rebalance to track a multiple of an asset's daily return.

Market sentiment described as "bullish" reflects a general expectation that prices will rise, which is why long positions dominate during uptrends. The opposite strategy, going "short," profits when prices fall instead.