Bitcoin, Ether and Solana Rally as $1B in Short Bets Are Liquidated

Bitcoin climbed above $77,000 during European trading Friday, extending its winning streak to five consecutive sessions. BTC was up about 8% over 24 hours and roughly 22% over the past week.
Short sellers suffered another major round of losses, with around $1.2 billion in bearish positions liquidated during the latest 24-hour period. Total liquidations reached approximately $1.4 billion across 156,211 traders, according to CoinGlass.
The latest wave follows the more than $3 billion in short positions liquidated Thursday, the largest single-day amount in CoinGlass records dating back to 2021. Combined, short liquidations over the two sessions have now exceeded $4 billion.
The biggest individual liquidation during the latest period involved a $25.13 million Bitcoin position on Hyperliquid.
Liquidations occur when traders use borrowed funds to take positions larger than their available capital. If prices move against them far enough, exchanges automatically close those positions to prevent losses from exceeding their collateral.
In this case, traders positioned for falling prices were forced to close their bets. Those automatic buybacks added upward pressure to the market, triggering further liquidations and creating a short-squeeze effect.
The scale of the liquidations is significant because it helps determine whether Bitcoin’s rally is being driven by genuine demand or forced buying. Traders covering losing short positions are not necessarily choosing to buy Bitcoin at higher valuations; they are simply exiting positions that moved against them.
Hyperliquid’s HYPE token gained more than 4% to nearly $73, making it the strongest major crypto performer over the week with gains approaching 27%.
Ether climbed nearly 5% to around $2,350 and was up about 24.5% over seven days. Dogecoin added almost 9% to slightly above $0.08, while Solana rose more than 5% to just under $90. Both tokens had gained roughly 17% over the week.
BNB advanced 6% to around $660, bringing its seven-day gain to about 8%. Tron was a laggard, rising 1.5% to just below $0.34 with little change over the week.
The latest rally began Wednesday after the U.S. Treasury announced plans to double the size of its long-term Treasury buybacks from $2 billion to $4 billion per operation. The move eased financial conditions across the roughly $30 trillion Treasury market and helped improve investor appetite for risk.
Bitcoin subsequently broke through resistance around $66,600, bringing the $76,000 area into focus as the next major target.
Political developments also provided support. President Donald Trump called on Congress to move forward with the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act during a White House event Wednesday attended by executives from Coinbase, Gemini, Ripple and Chainlink Labs.
Bitcoin’s market capitalization has now reached approximately $1.5 trillion, although it remains about 40% below its record high above $126,000 set last October.