The bears have once again misjudged the market. Bitcoin briefly reached $80,594 on Monday, its highest level since January 31, before dropping back to around $79,851. This movement triggered $370 million in crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours, impacting 97,235 traders, according to CoinGlass data. Notably, $301.93 million of these liquidations were from short positions.
Shorts were liquidated roughly four times as much as longs, indicating a dominant bearish positioning prior to the price movement. As the rally gained momentum, these bearish positions were forced to unwind at a loss. Bitcoin accounted for $179 million of the total, with ether traders contributing $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 setup 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, leading to violent unwinding of short positions each time the price increases. Other major cryptocurrencies also saw gains, with ether rising 2.3% to $2,368, XRP gaining 2.1% to $1.42, BNB adding 1.9% to $630, Solana rising 1.4% to $85.14, and Dogecoin increasing 3.5% to $0.1119.
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 the breakout, with the rising price and downward-sloping 200-day moving average converging with an important long-term trend line at $83,600.