The cryptocurrency market continues its strong upward momentum, with Bitcoin (BTC) surpassing $87,000 and Ethereum (ETH) exceeding $2,800. According to OKX data, Bitcoin’s price rose to $87,010, gaining 7.41% in the last 24 hours, while Ethereum reached $2,800.26, extending its daily gain to 5.98%.
There are multiple factors behind the market rally. Chief among them is the renewed strong inflow of capital into US spot Bitcoin ETFs. According to data reported by Bloomberg, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of approximately $593 million over Thursday and Friday. This offset a significant portion of the outflows seen earlier in the week, increasing expectations of renewed institutional demand.
Regulatory developments also supported market sentiment. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted a five-year regulatory exemption to certain platforms for trading tokenized shares on the blockchain. This move is seen as a potential step towards integrating blockchain-based financial products into traditional markets in the U.S.
On the macroeconomic front, the recovery in risk appetite was another factor supporting cryptocurrencies. The fall in the US 10-year Treasury yield below 5%, the drop in oil prices, and the Nasdaq’s rise to a record high led by technology stocks made it easier for investors to turn to riskier assets. Bitcoin also gained over 6% in value during the same period.
However, one of the strongest short-term drivers of the rally was the short squeeze in the futures market. According to CoinGlass data, a total of $926 million worth of leveraged positions were liquidated in the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours. Approximately $785 million of these liquidations consisted of short positions, indicating that investors who had taken short positions as the price rose were forced to close their positions. The amount of liquidations in long positions remained at approximately $142 million.
A total of $509 million worth of Bitcoin positions and approximately $198 million worth of Ethereum positions were liquidated. The largest single liquidation occurred on the BTC/USDT trading pair on Binance, with a position size of approximately $11.3 million.
*This is not investment advice.
