BTC short squeeze triggers $2.9B liquidations

TLDR

Bitcoin (BTC) surged toward $70,000 as a violent short squeeze forced roughly 2 to 3 billion dollars of leveraged crypto positions to liquidate.

1. Data from several venues shows about $1.1B to $1.3B in shorts wiped out in a single hour and roughly $2B-plus in total liquidations over 24 hours, mostly on BTC and ETH.
2. The squeeze rode a macro catalyst: falling US Treasury yields after a bond buyback move, plus supportive spot Bitcoin ETF flows and heavy short positioning in derivatives.
3. Leverage and open interest remain elevated, so the key question is whether BTC can hold the high 60k to low 70k zone without a follow-up flush from overextended longs.

Confidence: high, since multiple independent datasets report similar liquidation magnitudes.

Deep Dive

1. Scale Of The Liquidations

Multiple analysts report that within about an hour, short positions worth roughly $1.14B to $1.23B were liquidated as BTC ripped through resistance, with Bitcoin contributing around $670M to $770M and Ethereum about $420M to $430M in that window, based on CoinGlass data cited by Decrypt and BeInCrypto.

Over the broader 24-hour period, total crypto liquidations are reported in the $1.9B range by outlets like Daily Hodl and U.Today, with shorts making up the vast majority. A separate futures-focused analysis on CMCs community desk puts the figure closer to about $2.9B across derivatives, highlighting how dataset coverage and venue selection can push the headline number higher.

2. Macro And Market Triggers

This was not a purely crypto-internal event. The initial push came after the US Treasury signaled it would at least double long-end bond buybacks, which pulled 30-year yields down from multi-decade highs and made risk assets like BTC more attractive, as detailed in coverage of the surprise bond-market move.

That macro tailwind met heavy short positioning and positive spot flows: US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw hundreds of millions of dollars in net inflows around the same window, while perpetual futures funding had leaned bearish. Once BTC broke above the mid-60k region, forced buybacks from short liquidations became rocket fuel, turning a macro-driven bid into a full short squeeze.

3. Risks And What To Watch

Derivatives metrics show that leverage is still significant. Perpetuals open interest rose roughly 10 to 11 percent over 24 hours to around 445.74 B, and funding rates remain positive, signaling healthy but potentially unstable speculative exposure.

If new long leverage grows faster than underlying spot demand, the market can flip from a short squeeze into a long flush, with the same liquidation mechanics running in reverse. Technically, many analysts now frame 69k to 70k as a key resistance band: strong closes above it with rising spot volume support a trend break, while repeated rejections raise the odds of a retrace toward the mid 60k area.

Conclusion

This squeeze shows how quickly macro shifts and crowded derivatives betting can translate into multi-billion dollar flows in crypto. BTCs jump was amplified by forced liquidations rather than purely organic spot demand, which makes the follow-through path more uncertain. The next weeks will hinge on whether ETF inflows and calmer rates sustain BTC above its new range, or whether renewed leverage and policy signals set up the next cascade in the opposite direction.