Bitcoin News

Story: Bitcoin Surges to $69,749 as $1.48 Billion in Shorts Liquidated in One Hour

By Evie Vavasseur

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Treasury Move Lit the Fuse. The catalyst on the macro side was the U.S. Treasury's plan to double its liquidity-support…

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How the Liquidation Cascade Works. Here's the thing about leveraged short positions: once prices move against them, the math gets…

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Can the Gains Hold?. That's the real question now. Short squeezes are dramatic, but they're not the same as organic…

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Bitcoin blasted through $66,000 and kept going. By late morning in the U.S. on August 19, it peaked at $69,749 — a level the market hadn't seen in weeks — before settling back to…

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The move didn't come out of nowhere. Two things hit at once: U.S. Treasury yields dropped sharply after a policy announcement, and a massive pile of short positions started…

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The catalyst on the macro side was the U.S. Treasury's plan to double its liquidity-support buybacks for longer-dated securities — from $2 billion per operation up to $4 billion,…

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Bitcoin had been pretty much stuck between $61,500 and $65,000 for weeks. Stagnant. The kind of range-bound trading that makes everyone restless.

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ETF inflows were part of the picture too. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs pulled in $297.6 million earlier in the week.

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The sharpest moves happened within 15 to 60 minutes. Volume surged. Sentiment flipped. Traders scrambled to adjust positions as the price kept climbing.

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Related: Peter Schiff Warns Bitcoin Stalemate at $65,000 Could Signal Serious Downturn

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Bitcoin hadn't been at these levels since earlier in the summer. The speed of the move made it notable even by crypto standards.

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That's the real question now. Short squeezes are dramatic, but they're not the same as organic demand. Once the forced buying stops, the price needs something underneath it.

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The $69,000 to $70,000 range is where traders are focused. It's not clear yet whether the recent spike is a genuine breakout or another leverage-driven pop that fades.

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The risk is pretty specific: if leveraged traders pile back into long positions aggressively, without a matching increase in spot demand, the setup becomes fragile.

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And the Treasury's announcement helped more than just bitcoin. Other risk assets gained too.

The Currency Analytics

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