Traders betting against the prices of major cryptocurrencies are feeling the pain Wednesday as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other top assets are well in the green, leading to hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of short position liquidations.
Bitcoin (BTC) has rebounded to nearly $69,000 for the first time in more than a week, recently trading for $69,869 after falling below the $63,000 mark on Tuesday. While up more than 7% on the day, the price of the leading cryptocurrency remains down more than 21% over the last 30 days.
Altcoins Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) are the biggest gainers among the top 10 coins by market cap, with Ethereum rising 12% on the day to a recent price of $2,075 while Solana has jumped almost 14% to just shy of $89. Both coins had shown substantial losses in recent weeks, but are swinging back the other direction on Wednesday.
Overall, the crypto market has climbed by about 6.6% over the last 24 hours, per data from CoinGecko. Other major gainers with double-digit rises during that span include Polkadot (DOT), Filecoin (FIL), Uniswap (UNI), Aptos (APT), Avalanche (AVAX), and Chainlink (LINK).
More than $400 million worth of short positions have been liquidated in the last 24 hours, per data from CoinGlass, making up the vast majority of the $463 million worth of total liquidations during that span.
Bitcoin currently leads the list with about $200 million worth of liquidations, with Ethereum next up with $153 million worth and Solana well behind in third with about $22 million.
Prominent crypto stocks are skyrocketing Wednesday as the risk-on appetite grows in equities, with USDC stablecoin issuer Circle showing a 29% spike to $79 per share after reporting earnings, while blockchain lender Figure is up 15% to $34 per share and Ethereum treasury leader BitMine Immersion Technologies has swung up almost 14% to $22.
Other notable crypto stock gainers today include Coinbase with a 13% swing to $183, Bitcoin treasury giant Strategy rising nearly 9% to above $135 per share, and Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings with a 7% rise to $8.66.
While still bearish overall, users on Myriad—a prediction markets platform operated by Decrypt's parent company, Dastan—are gaining more confidence that Bitcoin will continue rising. They currently pencil in a 43% chance that Bitcoin will next rise to $84,000 rather than fall to $55,000, with odds rising about 14% in the last day.
