BTC Hits $65,000 as $56M Short Squeeze Punishes Bearish Traders

Bitcoin Rebounds

Bitcoin briefly tapped $65,000 on Tuesday even as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East entered a critical phase following the expiration of the 60-day memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran. However, before its sudden spike, bitcoin traded above $64,000, having reclaimed that threshold Monday afternoon.

Market data show it held above $64,200 until just two hours before midnight, when selling pressure nearly pulled the cryptocurrency below $64,000. A volatile period followed, which saw bitcoin fluctuate between $64,300 and $64,000 for almost 10 hours. Shortly after 9:30 a.m. EST, however, the cryptocurrency surged, adding approximately $1,000 in just one hour to reach $65,000.

Although it lost momentum soon after breaching that mark, dropping to $64,744 at 2:35 p.m. EST, the price action left the cryptocurrency with a daily gain of 0.5% and pushed its weekly gains past 2%. At the time of writing, bitcoin’s market capitalization was nearing $1.3 trillion.

On the derivatives market, bitcoin’s latest gain was again particularly brutal for traders shorting the cryptocurrency. According to Coinglass data, bitcoin’s fluctuations in the previous 24 hours wiped out $56 million in leveraged short positions, compared with just $4 million in liquidated long bets. Overall, long bets still accounted for $108 million of total liquidations recorded across the cryptocurrency market.

Although bitcoin’s gradual climb seemingly kicked off after Strategy revealed that it had not sold bitcoin in the past week, some analysts warn that a concentration of sell orders around $65,000 suggests a breakout is not imminent.

Offering a contrarian perspective, Skybridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci argued that the data tells a different story from bearish headlines. While acknowledging that bitcoin is in a clear bear market, he noted that the current drawdown is far milder than those seen in previous cycles.

“This is a clear Bitcoin bear market, and yet we’ve only had a 55% drop, whereas in other bear markets you’ve gotten a 75-80% drop. That’s weirdly a good sign; it suggests many net buyers are already positioning for the next bull phase,” Scaramucci said in a post on X.

Supporting this view, blockchain analytics platform Glassnode noted that “strong hands” are actively buying bitcoin. According to the firm, market bottoms typically form as profit-taking slows and conviction buyers step in, drawing parallels to the market structure seen during 2022. Glassnode highlighted that the largest increase in bitcoin held by conviction buyers occurred when the asset dropped to $60,000 in January.