Bitcoin’s Price Rise to $41K Buoyed by $200M in Weekend Short Liquidations

Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) added as much as 4% in the past 24 hours as optimism around a possible spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval in the U.S. continued to grow, and peak prices in gold added to tailwinds.

BTC crossed the $41,000 mark early Monday, extending year-to-date gains to over 152%.

Click here to read CoinDesk's Most Influential list for 2023, a series of 50 profiles of key people, companies and trends in crypto.

Data from CoinGlass show, exchanges have liquidated crypto perpetual futures positions worth $220 million over the weekend. Bullish longs accounted for nearly 85% of the tally.

Over $120 million worth of bitcoin shorts, referring to bets against price rises, have been liquidated since Friday. Elsewhere, open interest grew 6% on Monday as traders increased leveraged positions to bet on further volatility.

Meanwhile, analysts at Coinanlyze told CoinDesk in an X message that open interest on the exchange BitMEX spiked 90% within hours to $420 million from over $200 million on Saturday – indicating a large player had opened massive bets on the platform.

Liquidation refers to when an exchange forcefully closes a trader’s leveraged position due to a partial or total loss of the trader’s initial margin. It 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).

Large liquidations can signal the local top or bottom of a steep price move, which may allow traders to position themselves accordingly.

Such data is beneficial for traders as it serves as a signal of leverage being effectively washed out from popular futures products – acting as a short-term indication of a decline in price volatility.