Bearish investors were proven wrong once again. Bitcoin, with the symbol BTC, reached a high of $80,294.72 and briefly touched $80,594 early on Monday, marking its highest value since January 31, before slightly declining to trade around $79,851 at the time of writing.

This movement triggered approximately $370 million in total cryptocurrency liquidations over the past 24 hours, impacting 97,235 traders, as per data from CoinGlass. Of this total, $301.93 million resulted from short positions. Shorts were liquidated roughly four times as much as longs, indicating dominant bearish positioning prior to the move, which led to them being caught off guard and forced to unwind their positions at a loss. Bitcoin alone accounted for $179 million of the losses, 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 of its kind in two weeks, following a similar setup on April 18 that wiped out $593 million in shorts as Bitcoin surpassed $77,000 due to reports of an Iran ceasefire.

The pattern is starting to appear structural, with funding rates on Bitcoin perpetuals remaining 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 experienced gains, with Ether rising 2.3% to $2,368 and increasing 2.2% over the week.

XRP gained 2.1% to $1.42, BNB added 1.9% to $630, and Solana rose 1.4% to $85.14. Dogecoin continued its strong performance, up 3.5% on the day and 14.3% over the week to $0.1119, extending the breakout that began last week alongside the year-high open interest in DOGE futures. Net inflows into U.S.

spot Bitcoin ETFs reached $153.9 million last week, according to SoSoValue, with April pulling in $1.97 billion across the products, the highest monthly total since October 2025. In contrast, Ether ETFs saw $82.5 million in net outflows, ending a three-week inflow streak.

Analysts at FxPro noted in a report that Bitcoin needs to consolidate above $85,000 to confirm the breakout. 'The rising price and the downward-sloping 200-day moving average are actively converging with an important long-term trend line at $83,600. Consolidation above this level could further encourage traders, but we would prefer to see consolidation above $85,000 first.'