Bitcoin Clears $86,000 as a $769 Million Short Squeeze Drives a 10.8% Weekly Gain

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• Bitcoin traded near $86,600, up 10.8% over the trailing week and back to levels last seen in January
• Roughly 115,490 traders were liquidated over 24 hours, with total liquidations reaching $769.8 million, more than 85% of it short positions
• The rally coincided with falling oil prices, easing Treasury yields, and improving expectations for US-Iran diplomacy

Bitcoin cleared $86,600 this week, extending a rally that has pushed the token up 10.8% over the trailing week and back to price levels last seen in January. The move came alongside a broader climb across major cryptocurrencies, with ether gaining 10.4% over the same period, though bitcoin’s advance stood out for the unusually large wave of forced selling it triggered among traders who had bet on further declines.

Roughly 115,490 traders were liquidated across crypto markets over 24 hours, with total liquidations reaching $769.8 million, according to data tracked on CoinGlass. Short positions accounted for more than 85% of that figure, close to $647 million, meaning most of the forced selling came from traders who had bet bitcoin would keep falling rather than from long holders taking profit. Bitcoin alone accounted for $421.5 million of the liquidated positions, with ether contributing another $180.3 million.

A short squeeze of this size tends to feed on itself. As bitcoin’s price rose past levels where leveraged short positions had been opened, exchanges automatically closed those positions by buying bitcoin on the open market, which added fresh buying pressure and pushed the price higher still, triggering a further round of liquidations in a self-reinforcing cycle that can move faster than the underlying spot demand alone would explain.

The rally also lined up with a shift in the broader macro backdrop. Brent crude fell to $98.49 a barrel, down from levels above $100 in prior weeks, while the US 10-year Treasury yield dropped below 5%, both changes that tend to support risk assets like crypto by lowering the opportunity cost of holding volatile, non-yielding positions. Improving expectations for US-Iran diplomacy contributed to the softer oil price, according to traders cited in market commentary on the move.

Analysts offered differing emphases on what specifically triggered the advance. Presto Research’s Min Jung said there was no single clear catalyst, pointing instead to a mix of renewed risk appetite, spot ETF demand, and short covering after bitcoin broke above key technical levels, while BTSE’s Jeff Mei tied the move to favorable macro conditions and expectations around an upcoming Trump-Xi meeting touching on trade. Whether the gains hold will depend on whether that same combination of demand and short covering continues once the immediate squeeze has worked through the market.