Crypto Bears Face $320 Million Squeeze As Bitcoin Breaks $110,000

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Data shows the cryptocurrency short holders have witnessed a mass liquidation event during the past day as Bitcoin and other assets have rallied.

Bitcoin Has Set A New All-Time High Beyond $111,000

Despite pessimism surrounding Bitcoin during the earlier phase of decline, the cryptocurrency has defied expectations to not only recover to the previous all-time high (ATH), but also smash past it to set a new record around $111,800.

Below is a chart that shows how the recent bullish push from the asset has looked.

The price of the coin has broken past the previous ATH of about $109,200 | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView

BTC seemed to be on the cusp after hitting $103,000 earlier in the month, but the coin couldn’t quite gather enough steam for that final push, leading to it falling prey to sideways consolidation. Naturally, this has changed in the last couple of days, with sustained momentum finally making an appearance.

The altcoins have also seen rallies of their own recently, but in terms of weekly returns, the original digital asset has managed to outperform most of the top ones. Ethereum, for example, has rallied about 3.5% in this period, less than half of BTC’s 8.5% return.

Crypto Liquidations Have Surpassed $500 Million In The Last 24 Hours

According to data from CoinGlass, the volatility led by the number one cryptocurrency has meant that a large number of positions on the derivatives exchanges have ended up finding liquidation during the past day. “Liquidation” here refers to the forceful closure that any open contract has to go through when its losses have exceeded a certain degree (as defined by the specific platform with which the position is open).

Here is a table that shows the relevant numbers related to the latest liquidations in the cryptocurrency market:

Looks like shorts have taken the brunt of the hit | Source: CoinGlass

As is visible above, the cryptocurrency sector as a whole has seen a whopping $516 million in liquidations over the last 24 hours. Considering the bullish price action, it’s not surprising to see that the shorts have made up for around 64% of the total liquidations ($334 million).

In terms of the breakdown by symbol, Bitcoin and Ethereum have been the top two contributors to the liquidations, as usual.

The heatmap related to cryptocurrency liquidations in the past day | Source: CoinGlass

A mass liquidation event like the latest one is popularly known as a “squeeze.” Considering that the shorts have been hit the hardest in this event, it would be termed as a short squeeze.

While a substantial amount of liquidations have occurred recently, it would appear that the speculators have still not been dissuaded, as the Bitcoin Open Interest has only continued to shoot up.

The data related to the BTC Open Interest | Source: CoinGlass

The “Open Interest” keeps track of the total number of positions related to BTC that are currently open on all derivatives platforms. At present, this indicator is sitting at $81 billion, a notable increase from the $65 billion value registered on May 18th.

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