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Bitcoin entered a second surge following a strong rally in the cryptocurrency market, reaching $69,910 according to Binance data. The rapid rise of $BTC from the $64,000 region to nearly $70,000 triggered billions of dollars in liquidations in leveraged markets.
One of the key catalysts behind the recent move in Bitcoin’s price was the US Treasury Department’s announcement that it will significantly expand its long-term government bond repurchase program. The Treasury Department announced it will more than double the size of debt repurchases at a time of increased market stress and with long-term bond yields reaching their highest levels in nearly 20 years.
Under the program led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the focus will be particularly on 10-20 year and 20-30 year U.S. Treasury bonds. The maximum size of one-off buybacks in these maturities, where investor demand has weakened significantly since late June, will be increased from $2 billion to at least $4 billion.
Following the Treasury’s announcement, long-term US Treasury yields experienced a sharp decline. The drop in bond yields increased expectations of easing financial conditions, supporting demand for alternative assets such as Bitcoin and gold.
The rise in Bitcoin caught investors, particularly those holding short positions in the futures markets, off guard. In the last hour, a total of $706.17 million in leveraged positions were liquidated, with $651.59 million of that being short positions. Long position liquidations remained at $54.58 million.
In the last four hours, the total size of liquidations reached $802.89 million, while $735.65 million worth of short positions were closed. The picture becomes much more striking over a wider timeframe. In the last 12 hours, a total of $2.63 billion worth of positions were liquidated, with approximately $2.43 billion of that being short positions.
The total liquidation amount over the past 24 hours has risen to $2.71 billion. During this period, short investors lost $2.47 billion, while approximately $234.12 million worth of long positions were liquidated. Thus, it appears that the recent Bitcoin rally has largely transformed into a “short squeeze” movement, accelerated by the forced closing of short positions.
According to TradingView data, Bitcoin reached an intraday high of $69,910 during its second upward wave, and is currently trading around $69,400 at the time of writing. $BTC thus quickly surpassed the $66,000, $68,000, and $69,000 levels, approaching the psychological $70,000 mark.
*This is not investment advice.
u.today
