Bitcoin Price Hits $69,600 as Short Squeeze and Treasury Buybacks Fuel Rally

The Bitcoin price has surged to its highest level since June, hitting $69,600 before stabilizing at around $68,500. This sudden upwards move is likely due in part to a short squeeze, as data from CoinGlass shows over $1.8 billion worth of leveraged positions have been liquidated in the last 4 hours alone, with 93% of them being short positions.

A short squeeze occurs when an asset's price makes a sudden move upwards while there is an excessive amount of short positions open on the asset. This forces the most exposed short sellers to buy the asset to prevent further losses, which in turn increases the asset's price and forces other short sellers to do the same.

The US Treasury's increased bond buybacks and today's White House meeting with top crypto execs are also likely contributing to the rally. The US Treasury announced it will at least double buyback sizes for 10- to 30-year Treasury securities from $2 billion to $4 billion per operation between September 9 and November 4.

Crypto assets other than Bitcoin have also responded well, with Ethereum breaking through $2,000 to hit $2,100 and Zcash gaining 8% and surpassing the $550 level for the first time since July 20.