Bitcoin, Ethereum surge as $1.44B short squeeze shakes crypto market

Bitcoin and Ethereum made big gains on Wednesday, wrong-footing traders who had bet that prices would continue to fall.

On another note, with Bitcoin recently nearing $70,000 and Ethereum peaking over $2,100, the market started gathering pace, meaning, people betting against these assets lost an estimated $1.44 billion!

Kryptomeny Bitcoin rally catches traders off guard

Bitcoin started the day near $64,681 before climbing as high as $69,698, later trading around $68,509, as it went up almost 6%.

The move was swift, which caused many traders to be hit by a huge loss they were probably not expecting. The biggest liquidation on CoinGlass in just about four hours totalled $1.52 billion, where about $1.40 billion was short positions and therefore a win for the long positions.

Many traders had placed bets on prices falling, but once Bitcoin started seeing a price increase instead, exchanges automatically closed positions that could no longer cover their losses.

Bitcoin traders suffered the biggest hit, as data showed that around $893 million in BTC positions were liquidated over 24 hours, including $861 million from shorts.

More than $531 million in Bitcoin shorts disappeared in just one hour.

Kryptomeny Ethereum joins the rebound

Ethereum moved even faster.

It managed to gain almost 9%, reaching an intraday high of $2,112 before then trading around $2,087, with the rally wiping out approximately $469 million in positions over 24 hours, with short traders accounting for $424 million.

Together, Bitcoin and Ethereum represented roughly 85% of all crypto liquidations during the period.

But the rebound wasn’t limited to the market’s two largest assets, as data showed that XRP and Solana both gained more than 6%, meaning a wider recovery across major assets.

The move also came during an unusually busy week for US crypto policy.

President Donald Trump is meeting crypto and technology industry leaders at the White House on Wednesday, and this is coming after the SEC proposed new rules that could make fundraising easier for some crypto projects a day earlier.

Kryptomeny Final Summary

• Crypto traders lost $1.61 billion to liquidations over 24 hours, including $1.44 billion from bets on falling prices.
• Bitcoin approached $70,000, while Ethereum briefly climbed above $2,100.