Bitcoin shortsellers are facing significant losses as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) surged by almost 11% to reach a new yearly high of $57,000. According to data from CoinGlass, over $161 million worth of BTC shorts were liquidated in the past 24 hours. Traders who were shorting Ether (ETH) also experienced losses, with liquidations amounting to nearly $44 million within the same timeframe. In total, more than $270 million in short positions were liquidated as Bitcoin briefly touched $57,000.
The overall market has been driven by a substantial increase in the price of Bitcoin, which rose by 10.8% from $51,471 to $57,035 in less than 24 hours, according to TradingView data. Although Bitcoin has since cooled off and is currently trading at $56,000, it has still seen a 32% increase in the past month.
Swyftx lead analyst, Pav Hundal, described the crypto market as “on fire right now” in a statement to Cointelegraph. He noted that retail trade volumes are at levels similar to those seen during the previous bull run in November 2021, and institutional buying pressure is significant. Hundal, like many others, attributed this surge in interest to the substantial amounts of institutional capital flowing into recently approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States. On February 26, net inflows into the 10 Bitcoin ETFs reached over $515 million, one of the highest daily inflows since the ETFs were approved on January 11, according to Farside data.
Hundal further commented that “Exchange Traded Funds alone are consuming almost a quarter of the Bitcoin currently being produced by the network.” He also highlighted that he is not alone in his optimism about the future price of Bitcoin, as other market experts have expressed their support for the asset on social media platforms. Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini, a US-based crypto exchange, simply stated, “We’re so back!” while BTC bull Dan Held declared that today’s price action marks “the beginning of the Bitcoin bull run.”