Despite their predictions, bears were incorrect once again. Bitcoin briefly reached $80,594 on Monday, its highest point since January 31, before dropping to $79,851. This movement led to $370 million in crypto liquidations over 24 hours, impacting 97,235 traders.
Notably, $301.93 million of these losses came from short positions. The dominance of bearish positioning prior to the move meant that shorts were liquidated roughly four times more than longs, as they were forced to close their positions at a loss. Bitcoin accounted for $179 million of the losses, while Ether traders lost $95 million. The largest single liquidation was an $11.77 million ETH/USDT short on Binance.
This is the second such incident in two weeks, following a similar event on April 18 that wiped out $593 million in shorts as Bitcoin surpassed $77,000. The pattern suggests a structural issue, with funding rates on Bitcoin perpetuals remaining negative for most of April.
As a result, shorts have been paying longs to maintain their positions, and each price increase leads to a violent unwind of the same trade. Other major cryptocurrencies also saw gains, with Ether rising 2.3% to $2,368 and XRP gaining 2.1% to $1.42.
BNB added 1.9% to $630, and Solana rose 1.4% to $85.14. Dogecoin stood out with a 3.5% increase and a 14.3% weekly gain to $0.1119, extending its breakout from the previous week. Net inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs reached $153.9 million last week, with April seeing $1.97 billion in total, the highest monthly total since October 2025.
In contrast, Ether ETFs experienced $82.5 million in net outflows. According to FxPro analysts, Bitcoin needs to consolidate above $85,000 to confirm its breakout.
The convergence of the rising price and the downward-sloping 200-day moving average with an important long-term trend line at $83,600 is crucial. Consolidation above $85,000 is necessary to further encourage traders.