Bitcoin Shorts Get Burned Amid $72K Surge, Liquidations Top $170M

In the last 24 hours, Bitcoin has engineered a notable comeback, reclaiming the $70K threshold after its recent bearish performance. Notably, $BTC crashed to a low of $64,559 on April 3 but has rallied by over 10% to re-enter the $70K territory within the last 24 hours.

However, Bitcoin momentarily failed to defend this recently reclaimed $70K threshold amid a retracement to within the $68K territory shortly after. Meanwhile, short traders swiftly leveraged the uptick to open positions, betting against $BTC’s performance.

Prominent market watcher, Ali Martinez, has called attention to this trend in a recent update on X. Martinez’s update emphasized the substantial capital at risk of loss should Bitcoin recover swiftly from the new retracement.

Citing data from derivative market tracking platform Coinglass, the analyst disclosed that nearly $72 million would be liquidated from Bitcoin traders should the asset rebound to $70,875.

At the time of the analyst’s disclosure, $BTC was hovering around $69,205. This price point implied that Bitcoin was merely a 2.4% gain from a rebound to $70,875. Reacting to the update, an X user remarked that Bitcoin sellers must be under significant pressure with the substantial funds they stand to lose, given their close liquidation point.

Interestingly, Bitcoin has witnessed a sustained uptrend to an intraday peak of $72,700 at press time. Accordingly, Bitcoin shorts have been counting their losses as the asset has continued to hold steady around the $72K region at the time of reporting.

Moreover, the latest record from Coinglass suggested that in the past 24 hours, 51,087 traders have lost $171.57 million to liquidation. Of this figure, $BTC shorts suffered over $63 million in loss.

Notably, this current liquidation trend against Bitcoin short sellers may likely endure, as on-chain data suggests that Bitcoin’s bulls have the upper hand amid flows into ETFs and the upcoming halving.