$918M in shorts liquidated in 24 hours as Bitcoin blasts past $85K

Bitcoin bears had a very bad day. Over a 24-hour stretch, approximately $918.9 million in short positions were forcibly closed across crypto derivatives markets, as Bitcoin ripped past $85,000 and left anyone betting against it scrambling for the exits. The price surge, which saw Bitcoin climb roughly 5.7% in a single day to intraday highs near $85,300, was driven by a textbook short squeeze. The liquidation cascade Short sellers borrow an asset and sell it, hoping to buy it back cheaper later. When the price moves against them, exchanges automatically close their positions to prevent further losses. That forced buying creates more upward pressure, which triggers more liquidations, which creates more buying. Short positions accounted for somewhere between 86% and 95% of all liquidations during the event. The carnage was concentrated in BTC and ETH positions, with the single largest individual liquidation clocking in at roughly $11.29 million on a BTC-USDT position on Binance. Total liquidations across both longs and shorts reached approximately $746 million to $790 million when looking at the core data, with the broader $918.9 million figure incorporating a wider set of altcoin pos...