Futures trading and leverage in general is not necessarily good for bitcoin, but it is inevitable given the way things have developed. There's just nothing to do but accept "they're here".
Hedge funds have legal obligations - trading via futures instead of taking custody of coins, makes sense to them on many levels. Futures positions have often spillover effects in the spot market. In this case particularly,︀ I find it likely PTJ's counterpart was a large market actor buying spot, selling futures.︁
Sure, "Buy rumors,︄ sell news" is an old truth. My biggest worry recently has been that so many︅ bigg-ish names are ultra bullish on bitcoin. Bitcoin makes logical/intellectual sense in this economic situation,︆ but if they are bullish, they are already in, as you said.
This PTJ thing︇ is remarkable in that he is the first big hedge fund guy in bitcoin. It︈ could be a weak signal that large funds are moving into bitcoin space. Also, PTJ's︉ estimate that bitcoin is the fastest horse in inflationary race, makes a lot of sense.︊ For example gold market is much more restricted due to huge central bank participation.