Bitcoin climbed back above $80,000 on Wednesday, November 4, recording its first daily close above the psychological threshold since the October 29 Binance hack. The rebound triggered a significant short squeeze, wiping out approximately $468.5 million in bearish futures positions.
The recovery gained momentum following the opening of U.S. stock markets, forcing traders betting against Bitcoin to close their positions. BTC reached approximately $80,550, posting a 2.7% gain over 24 hours. Ethereum showed stronger performance, advancing 4.4% to $2,427.
Bitcoin’s upward move developed through two successive rallies. At 14:30 UTC, when Wall Street opened, BTC was trading at $78,321. Within 15 minutes, it had climbed to $79,559 before extending its gains to $81,196 by 15:15 UTC. Earlier in the day, the cryptocurrency had touched $75,736, producing an intraday price swing of more than 7%.
The majority of liquidated traders were positioned for further declines. However, short-squeeze rallies can struggle to maintain momentum because forced buying eventually subsides once bearish positions have been closed.
Bitcoin Short Liquidations Reach $468 Million
Data from CoinGlass shows that total cryptocurrency futures liquidations reached $715.6 million over the previous 24 hours. Short positions represented 65.5% of the total, equivalent to approximately $468.5 million. In all, 99,879 traders had their positions liquidated.
Bitcoin accounted for the largest portion, with $267.1 million in forced closures. Short positions made up 93.4% of BTC liquidations, highlighting how heavily bearish traders were affected by the recovery.
Ethereum recorded another $197.5 million in liquidations, with shorts accounting for 58.1%. Binance emerged as the largest liquidation venue, processing 39.3% of the market-wide total.
The biggest individual liquidation involved a $38 million ETH long position on HTX, which was closed at $2,429.33, close to Ethereum’s current market price.
Bitcoin derivatives activity also showed signs of position unwinding. Open interest in BTC futures on OKX climbed to $3.88 billion during the rally before retreating to $3.74 billion by midnight UTC. This decline suggests that traders were primarily closing existing positions rather than aggressively opening new ones.
Despite the recovery, derivatives sentiment remains relatively cautious. The OKX long-to-short account ratio for Bitcoin declined from 1.84 at 11:00 UTC on Wednesday to 1.52 by Thursday morning. The change indicates that bearish positioning has increased relative to bullish exposure, even as BTC moved higher.
Bitcoin Price Analysis: Will BTC Maintain the $80K Level?
Bitcoin is trading near two important technical indicators: its 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) at $80,006 and its 50-day EMA at $80,166. Their proximity makes the $80,000 region an important area for determining whether the latest recovery can hold.
The next major hurdle is located around $81,971, where Bitcoin traded immediately before the Binance hack became public on October 29. A sustained breakout above this level would recover the price losses associated with the security incident.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin options traders are showing limited expectations of increased volatility. Deribit’s DVOL index, which measures the market’s anticipated 30-day Bitcoin volatility, slipped to 36.9 from Wednesday’s reading of 38.
Attention is now shifting toward spot market demand as the impact of forced short liquidations begins to fade. Continued buying pressure could help Bitcoin maintain support above $80,000 and make another attempt at reclaiming its pre-hack price.
Conversely, a slowdown in spot purchases could undermine the recovery, suggesting that Wednesday’s rally was primarily driven by liquidated short positions rather than a broader return of bullish demand.
