Over $1B liquidated from crypto market as shorts get obliterated

The crypto market just delivered a brutal reminder of what happens when too many traders bet against momentum. More than $1 billion in positions were liquidated across crypto markets, with roughly $850 million of that carnage coming from short sellers who found themselves on the wrong side of a violent price move. Bitcoin punched above $85,000 for the first time since January, gaining more than 5% in a single 24-hour window. The speed of the move turned what might have been an orderly rally into a cascading short squeeze that left leveraged bears scrambling for the exits. Anatomy of a squeeze A dense cluster of short interest sat between $83,000 and $86,000, creating what amounts to a wall of fuel waiting for a spark. Once Bitcoin crossed $84,000, the forced buying began in earnest. In the hour after that $84,000 breach alone, over $262 million in short positions were liquidated. Each liquidation forced more buying, which pushed the price higher, which triggered more liquidations. CoinGlass data pegged total liquidations at approximately $750 million over the 24-hour period, with around $648 million from shorts. Some broader estimates placed the figure closer to $919 million when f...