Cryptocurrency short selling exceeds $100 million due to Bitcoin price rebound

Bitcoin It rises again. People betting on asset prices falling are losing money.

According to CoinGlass data, nearly $100 million in short positions across all cryptocurrencies has been liquidated in the past 24 hours, bringing the current tally to just over $99 million.

Most of that figure was bets on the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, with nearly $36 million worth of BTC short positions now liquidated in 24 hours. In the last four hours, BTC shorts have reached nearly $22 million.

Long positions have also suffered losses over the past day, but traders behind short positions are feeling more pain. About $44 million worth of long positions were liquidated across all cryptocurrencies in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data.

Short positions are held by traders who bet on a future decline in the price of an asset. If the sell is liquidated, the trader loses the bet and the position is closed. Conversely, a long position is a bet that the price of an asset will rise.

that much bitcoin price It was up about 5% in the last 24 hours, trading at $61,911, according to CoinGecko. It briefly topped $62,000 on Friday morning. The asset has struggled in recent days, falling below $57,000 per coin at one point this week.

This is well below Bitcoin’s new March record of around $74,000. This is significantly lower than the previous 2021 record of $69,044.

Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market took a hit after the Federal Reserve hinted this week that it would be in no rush to cut interest rates.

Other geopolitical factors, such as conflicts in the Middle East, have made “risky” assets like Bitcoin less attractive to investors, leading to an outflow of funds from newly approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

But today’s U.S. government nonfarm payrolls report showed April’s unemployment rate was higher than expected.

Some cryptocurrency traders interpreted this as bullish. Higher unemployment makes it more likely that the Federal Reserve will consider cutting interest rates, and lower interest rates make cryptocurrencies more attractive to investors.

Editor: Andrew Hayward