Bitcoin Bears Lose $178M as Prices Break Past $34K

Bearish bets on bitcoin BTC$89 234,63 have cost traders over $178 million in the past 24 hours as prices soared past a critical resistance level. The jump in bitcoin prices came as a ticker registration bumped hopes of an oncoming spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval.

Data shows bitcoin-tracked futures accounted for nearly 50% of the total $400 million in crypto liquidations over Monday, with ether futures only seeing $50 million in liquidations over long and short positions.

Liquidation occurs when an exchange forcibly closes a trader’s leveraged position due to a partial or total loss of the initial margin. It happens when a trader cannot meet the margin requirements for a leveraged position (fails to have sufficient funds to keep the trade open).

Crypto exchanges Binance, Huobi and OKX saw liquidations worth $50 million each, suggesting a large amount of leverage used on those platforms. The largest single liquidation order occurred on Binance, with an order value of $10 million.

Bitcoin prices spiked 12%, surging to a high of $35,200 before retreating on Tuesday morning. The huge move was likely driven by relatively lower volumes and outsized demand – adding tens of billions of dollars to market capitalization in a few hours.

Crypto communities and analysts attributed the move to the ticker registration of Blackrock's spot bitcoin ETF – which remains under consideration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Such expectations have boosted hopes of a bullish revival of the crypto market, which has been in a general lull over the past several months.

“Bitcoin has also been encouraged by possible ETF approval and an increasing number of ETF submissions by leading companies,” shared Lucy Hu, senior trader at Metalpha, in a message last week. “(With the) Bitcoin ETF approval and halving event in April, the crypto market could kickstart a very robust bull market,” Hu added.