Bitcoin Breaks Through $80,000 Resistance

Bitcoin rose above $80,000 on Friday for the first time since September 7, increasing by about 4.6% in a single day and reaching as high as $81,299 over the weekend before easing to around $80,400 (Bitstamp).

The surge was not a gradual climb: roughly $603 million of positions were liquidated across 24 hours, with $523 million of those being short positions, forcing more than 110,000 traders out.

Two bearish catalysts had landed in the same week: a hawkish Fed hike and the failure of the CLARITY Act in the Senate. Neither event held back the market.

The structure has improved all month: higher lows since July ($57,500 → $76,000) form a rising trendline that is the bull case's floor. Upside resistance starts at $82,000 (the top of September's range) and then $83,000, the level that has capped price repeatedly since May.

Bitget's research desk notes that a clean break of $83,000 could open $85,000 ~ 90,000; research also flags a dense band of short liquidations between $83,000 and $86,000, meaning a push through the gate could trigger a second squeeze.