Bitcoin pump to $63,700 triggers the most short liquidations since late April
Traders betting against bitcoin lost $504 million over 24 hours as it bounced from below $60,000, though a fresh Iran-Israel flare-up pulled prices back on Monday.
What to know:
- Bitcoin’s sharp rebound from last week’s lows triggered about $504 million in losses for short sellers over 24 hours, the largest daily hit since late April.
- Total crypto liquidations reached roughly $655 million and affected more than 104,000 traders, with bitcoin and ether positions accounting for the bulk of forced closures.
- After briefly climbing near $63,800 over the weekend and touching $63,700 Monday, bitcoin eased to around $62,900 amid renewed Middle East tensions and ahead of key U.S. inflation data and major IPOs.
Total liquidations across crypto reached about $655 million and hit more than 104,000 traders. Bitcoin positions accounted for $315 million and ether for $201 million. The single biggest forced closure was a $12.3 million bitcoin futures position on the exchange OKX.
A liquidation is when an exchange automatically closes a leveraged bet that has moved too far against the trader.
The squeeze caps a volatile stretch for the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Bitcoin fell nearly 14% last week and briefly traded below $60,000, dragged down by Strategy’s first bitcoin sale since 2022, the unwind in artificial-intelligence stocks and a record run of outflows from spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
Many traders piled into shorts near the lows, then got caught when bitcoin rebounded to a high near $63,800 on Sunday, according to CoinDesk data.
