Bitcoin Bears Crushed: $100M In Crypto Shorts See Flush As BTC Breaks $63,000

Data shows the cryptocurrency derivatives market has registered significant liquidations after the Bitcoin rally above the $63,000 mark.

According to data from CoinGlass, the latest volatility in the cryptocurrency market has led to large liquidations on the derivatives side. “Liquidation” here naturally refers to the process that any open contract undergoes where its platform forcibly closes it off after it has amassed losses of a certain degree.

The table below shows how the derivatives liquidations have looked during the last 24 hours:

It would appear that the cryptocurrency derivatives market has registered total liquidations of $126 million in the past day. Out of these, almost $101 million of the contracts were short ones.

This figure is equivalent to more than 80% of the total, implying that these investors betting on a bearish outcome for the market were the most heavily affected by the latest volatility. This naturally makes sense, as assets across the sector have seen green returns in this window, led by Bitcoin’s rally.

A mass liquidation event like this latest one is popularly called a “squeeze“, and as shorts were the side that contributed to a majority of these liquidations, the squeeze would be known as a “short squeeze.”

During a squeeze, liquidations end up feeding further into the price move that caused them, thus unleashing a cascade of further liquidations. As such, the sharp price surge in the past day would in part be fueled by the short squeeze.

As for the breakdown of this latest squeeze for the various symbols, it would seem like Bitcoin has come out on top like usual with around $45 million in liquidations.

Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) have made up the rest of the top three with $24 million and $8 million in liquidations, respectively. Interestingly, while most of the sector has seen the dominance of short liquidations, XRP (XRP) on fourth has seen longs edge out instead. This may be down to the fact that the coin has overall only moved sideways while the rest have rallied.

With the latest rally, Bitcoin has been able to make some significant recovery, with its price even briefly surging above the $63,000 level earlier in the day.

The chart below shows what the coin’s surge has looked like:

According to data from the market intelligence platform IntoTheBlock, Bitcoin is now floating above the significant on-chain support level of $62,000. “While resistance is strong above, enough bullish momentum can prevent selling pressure,” notes the analytics firm.