Bitcoin’s recovery from last week’s lows has crushed traders who bet against it.
Short sellers, who profit when prices fall, lost $504 million in the 24 hours to Monday morning, the most in a single day since late April, according to CoinGlass. Bets on rising prices lost just $151 million by comparison.
Total liquidations across crypto reached around $655 million and affected more than 104,000 traders. Bitcoin positions accounted for $315 million and ether for $201 million. The largest single foreclosure was a $12.3 million bitcoin futures position on the OKX exchange.
A liquidation is when an exchange automatically closes a leveraged bet that has moved too far against the trader.
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 selloff since 2022, the lull in artificial intelligence stocks and a record outflow from spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
Many traders piled into shorts near the lows, then got caught as bitcoin surged to a high near $63,800 on Sunday, according to CoinDesk data.
The rejection lost some steam on Monday. Renewed attacks between Iran and Israel sent oil up more than 3% and Asian shares fell sharply, with South Korea’s KOSPI falling nearly 7%. President Donald Trump urged Israel not to retaliate further. Bitcoin fell back to around $62,900, still well above last week’s low.
Bitcoin hit as high as $63,700 on Monday morning before retreating, according to CoinDesk data, with volatility likely to remain high ahead of US inflation numbers and a wave of major IPOs including SpaceX.
