Bitcoin Squeezes Shorts Out of $1.2 Billion in Liquidations

Bitcoin surged on Friday to punish traders who had bet against it and liquidate over $1.2 billion in bearish positions.

The largest cryptocurrency traded at around $77,137, up 7.9% from the previous day's closing price according to CoinGecko data, after touching an intraday high of $79,320.

This move capped a strong week for Bitcoin, with prices rising 23.2% over seven days, despite being down roughly 31.8% from a year ago.

The rally was driven by a wave of short sellers getting squeezed out of their positions as prices rose, with CoinGlass data showing about $1.5 billion in total crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours across 178,777 traders, with short positions accounting for roughly $1.21 billion of that sum.

The largest single liquidation order was a $23.59 million BTC position on Hyperliquid, and analysts have been divided on whether the momentum can hold.