Bitcoin, Ether and Solana Push Higher as Short Sellers Lose Another $1B
- Bitcoin climbed above $77,000 in European morning trading Friday, extending its rally to five straight sessions. BTC was up roughly 8% over the past 24 hours and 22% over the week.
- Short sellers continued to take heavy losses, with around $1.2 billion in short positions liquidated over the latest 24 hours. Total crypto liquidations reached approximately $1.4 billion across 156,211 traders, according to CoinGlass.
- The latest losses came after more than $3 billion in shorts were liquidated Thursday, the largest daily total in CoinGlass data dating back to 2021. Combined short liquidations over the past two days have now exceeded $4 billion.
- The largest single position liquidated in the latest period was a $25.13 million Bitcoin trade on Hyperliquid.
- Leveraged positions are automatically closed when losses become too large relative to the collateral backing them. In this case, traders betting on lower crypto prices were forced to buy back their positions as prices moved higher.
- Those forced purchases added further upward pressure, creating a chain reaction in which rising prices triggered more short liquidations.
- The scale of the squeeze matters because it indicates that some of Bitcoin’s recent gains may have come from forced buying rather than fresh spot demand. Short sellers closing losing positions are not necessarily new investors choosing to buy at higher prices.
- Hyperliquid’s HYPE token gained more than 4% to nearly $73 and has risen almost 27% over the past week.
- Ether climbed nearly 5% to about $2,350, bringing its seven-day gain to roughly 24.5%. Dogecoin rose almost 9% to just above $0.08, while Solana gained more than 5% to below $90. Both were up about 17% for the week.
- BNB added 6% to reach around $660, while its weekly gain stood near 8%. Tron trailed the broader market, rising 1.5% to just under $0.34 and remaining nearly flat over seven days.
- Bitcoin’s rebound began Wednesday after the U.S. Treasury announced it would double the size of its long-term Treasury buyback operations from $2 billion to $4 billion. The move helped improve liquidity conditions in the roughly $30 trillion Treasury market and encouraged risk-taking.
- Bitcoin later broke through resistance near $66,600, bringing the $76,000 level into focus as the next major target.
- Political developments also boosted sentiment after President Donald Trump urged Congress to move forward with the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act at a White House meeting attended by executives from Coinbase, Gemini, Ripple and Chainlink Labs.
- Bitcoin’s market capitalization now stands near $1.5 trillion, although BTC remains roughly 40% below its record high above $126,000 reached last October.
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