Once again, bears misjudged the market. Bitcoin, with the symbol BTC, reached a high of $80,594 on Monday, its peak since January 31, before adjusting to trade around $79,851 at the time of writing. This move led to $370 million in total crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours, impacting 97,235 traders, as reported by CoinGlass data. Of this total, $301.93 million stemmed from short positions.
Shorts were liquidated roughly four times as much as longs, indicating dominant bearish positioning prior to the move, which forced them to close positions at a loss as the rally progressed. Bitcoin accounted for $179 million of the liquidations, while ether traders contributed $95 million. The largest single liquidation was an $11.77 million ETH/USDT short on Binance.
This squeeze is the second in two weeks, following a similar setup on April 18 that wiped out $593 million in shorts as bitcoin surpassed $77,000. The pattern is starting to appear structural, with funding rates on bitcoin perpetuals pinned negative for most of April, meaning shorts have been paying longs to maintain their short positions, and each time the price increases, the same trade unwinds violently. Other major cryptocurrencies also saw gains, with ether climbing 2.3% to $2,368, XRP gaining 2.1% to $1.42, BNB adding 1.9% to $630, and Solana rising 1.4% to $85.14. Dogecoin stood out, up 3.5% on the day and 14.3% on the week to $0.1119, extending its breakout alongside the year-high open interest in DOGE futures.
Net inflows into U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs reached $153.9 million last week, with April pulling in $1.97 billion, the highest monthly total since October 2025. Conversely, ether ETFs saw $82.5 million in net outflows, ending a three-week inflow streak. FxPro analysts noted that bitcoin needs to consolidate above $85,000 to confirm the breakout, citing the convergence of the rising price and the downward-sloping 200-day moving average with an important long-term trend line at $83,600.