Cardano, Ether Surge as Bitcoin-Led Rally Sees Short Traders Lose $125M

An overnight rally in bitcoin (BTC) led majors, such as cardano's ADA and ether (ETH), to surge as much as 7% and post one of the largest single-day gains this month.

Outside of majors, bitcoin cash (BCH) added 15%, stacks (STX) surged 21%, and tokens of “Chinese Ethereum” conflux (CFX) rose as much as 30% as traders likely bet on outsized gains for these tokens in the future.

Overall crypto market capitalization rose 5% over the past 24 hours, adding nearly $50 billion in value. The surge caused $125 million in short liquidations across crypto-tracked futures, as per CoinGlass.

Traders shorting bitcoin lost $54 million, followed by ether, sui (SUI) and XRP, data shows. Shorts are bets against the rise in the price of any asset.

Liquidation occurs when an exchange forcefully closes a trader’s leveraged position due to a partial or complete loss of the trader’s initial margin. This happens when a trader is unable to meet the margin requirements for a leveraged position (fails to have sufficient funds to keep the trade open).

Hopes surrounding a potential U.S. Bitcoin ETF filing by investment giant BlackRock fueled a bullish sentiment among some traders last week. Some crypto experts believe that if the filing is approved it could lead to large inflows for bitcoin and subsequently further gains in the market.

“Blackrock’s ETF presents a statement or unique ‘solution’ if you will that makes it different from previous ETF filings,” shared Eitan Katz, CEO of Kima, in a Telegram message. “It includes a surveillance sharing agreement with Nasdaq, which means that Nasdaq will have access to the trading data, including customer IDs –all with the intention to make it significantly more immune to market manipulations by traders.”

“Should the application be approved as many are speculating based on BlackRock’s success rates in its ETF filings, it will lend legitimacy to the cryptocurrency which is bound to draw in more investors including corporate and high net-worth individuals,” Katz added.