Bitcoin news turned to a short squeeze on Wednesday, November 4, as BTC closed above $80,000 for the first time since the October 29 Binance hack. A jump at the US stock market open forced traders to close $468.5 million of short bets. Bitcoin trades at $80,550, up 2.7% in 24 hours. ETH USD price did better, rising 4.4% to $2,427.
The move came in two steps. BTC went from $78,321 at 14:30 UTC, when New York opened, to $79,559 within 15 minutes, then pushed to $81,196 by 15:15 UTC. Earlier the same day, it had dropped to $75,736, so Wednesday's range was more than 7%.
Most of the traders caught out were betting on a fall. That matters, because a rally fed by forced short covering can fade once the buying stops.
How Big Was the Short Squeeze?
CoinGlass counted $715.6 million of crypto futures liquidations over 24 hours, and 65.5% of them, or $468.5 million, were shorts. Some 99,879 traders were liquidated.
Bitcoin led with $267.1 million liquidated, and 93.4% of that was shorts. Ether followed with $197.5 million, 58.1% of it shorts. Binance handled 39.3% of all liquidations.The largest single order went the other way. A $38 million ETH long was closed on HTX at $2,429.33, close to where ETH trades now.
On OKX, BTC futures open interest rose to $3.88 billion during the jump, then fell to $3.74 billion by midnight UTC. A drop like that suggests traders closed positions rather than opened new ones.
The crowd has not turned bullish. The OKX ratio of BTC accounts holding longs to those holding shorts fell from 1.84 at 11:00 UTC on Wednesday to 1.52 on Thursday morning, so more accounts are now betting against the rally.
Bitcoin News Today: BTC Price Analysis
BTC sits right on top of its 20-day EMA at $80,006, and its 50-day EMA at $80,166, so the $80,000 area is now both a round number and the first support.
BTCUSDT 1D chart. Source: TradingView
Outlook
Trigger
Level to watch
Rebound
A daily close above the October 29 high at $81,971
$84,898, the October 21 high
Holding pattern
Price stays between $80,000 and $81,971
Range trading around $80,600
Sell-off
A daily close back below $80,000
$77,910, the October 29 low, then $75,736
The $81,971 level is where BTC traded before news of the Binance hack broke. Reclaiming it would erase the hack-day drop on the chart.
Options traders are calm about it. Deribit's DVOL index, which tracks expected Bitcoin volatility over 30 days, eased to 36.9 from 38 on Wednesday.
The next Bitcoin news to watch is whether spot buyers step in now that the short covering has cooled. Without them, $80,000 is the line that decides whether this was a breakout or only a squeeze.
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Read original story Bitcoin Back Above $80,000 as $468 Million of Shorts Get Wiped Out: Can BTC Clear Its Pre-Hack High? by Daniel Francis at Coinspeaker.com
