The bearish days were shattered in about two hours Tuesday night, when bitcoin soared past $72,700 after Trump confirmed a two-week truce with Iran via Truth Social just before his 8pm ET deadline.
The move triggered a total of $595 million worth of cryptocurrency liquidations across 118,489 merchants, according to CoinGlass data.
Short positions accounted for $427 million compared to $168 million of long positions, a ratio of more than 2.5 to 1 that reflects how positioned the market was for further declines ahead of the deadline.
The largest single liquidation was a short BTC-USDT position on Binance worth $11.79 million. Bitcoin accounted for $245 million of total liquidations, ether followed with $126 million, and tokenized Brent crude oil futures on Hyperliquid added $33 million as the price of crude fell more than 10%, with an additional $42 million in CL (WTI crude oil) contracts.
Oil, which has been among the most liquidated crypto assets throughout the war, moved to the other side of the trade as Brent fell to around $99 and WTI to around $95.
The real damage is concentrated in a 12-hour period. Of the total $595 million, $508 million was liquidated in just 12 hours, with short positions taking $398 million, the most aggressive short squeeze since March 4 when bitcoin surged on the first round of truce speculation.
Solana’s SOL added $19.6 million in liquidations, ZEC $13.4 million, and XRP contributed smaller amounts to the long tail of altcoins. Even tokenized silver and gold positions found themselves in decline as the commodity complex re-priced the removal of the war premium.
Only, the truce is conditional.
Trump called it a “bilateral truce” and said the US had “already met and exceeded all military objectives”. Iran confirmed the suspension but restricted itself around the Strait of Hormuz, saying oil tankers could transit for two weeks “through coordination with the Iranian armed forces and with due consideration of technical restrictions.”
For context on how extreme the positioning has become, the fear-greed index was 8 on Sunday, continuing a streak of readings below 10 throughout the conflict. Elsewhere, Santiment data showed five bearish social media posts for every four bullish ones. Every sentiment and positioning indicator pointed in one direction. The ceasefire pushed the market violently in the second, reports SEEbiz.
Bitcoin’s move to $72,700 puts it at the top of the $65,000 to $73,000 range that has contained every rally and selloff since the war began.
Whether this breaks the range or becomes another dummy version depends on what “two weeks” turns into.
