Bitcoin hits $85,000 after $648M wipeout forces mass buying

Bitcoin surged above $85,000 as a wave of short liquidations accelerated the cryptocurrency’s strongest advance since January.Data from CryptoSlate showed BTC gained more than 5% over the past 24 hours to reach $85,193, extending its advance over the past 35 days to about 29%. The asset had eased to $84,545 as of press time after breaking through levels that had constrained its recovery for much of the year.The rally caught bearish traders heavily exposed. CoinGlass data showed about $750.5 million of leveraged crypto positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, with more than $648 million, or roughly 86%, coming from shorts. About 137,386 traders were liquidated during the period.Bitcoin accounted for roughly $360 million of the liquidations, while Ethereum contributed nearly $171 million. The largest single liquidation was an $11.29 million BTC-USDT position on Binance.The forced unwinding coincided with a sharp increase in aggressive buying across Bitcoin derivatives markets. CryptoQuant data showed net taker volume on Binance jumped from about $11 million to $618 million within an hour as European trading opened, signaling a sudden imbalance toward market buyers.Bitcoin Ne...