Bitcoin surged a second time today, surpassing $72,000 and reaching its highest level since June, following yesterday’s sharp rise. According to Binance data, $BTC climbed as high as $72,830 during the day, and is currently trading around $72,500 at the time of writing.
The rise in the cryptocurrency market is believed to be driven by two significant developments from the US. The first catalyst was the US Treasury Department’s announcement that it will at least double the size of its repurchase operations for long-term government bonds.
Under the new plan, the maximum size of buyback operations for 10-20 year and 20-30 year bonds is planned to be increased from $2 billion per transaction to at least $4 billion.
Following the decision, the US 30-year Treasury yield, which had previously climbed to 5.337%, its highest level since 2007, fell sharply. The decline in long-term bond yields increased the relative attractiveness of alternative assets like Bitcoin, which does not provide yield, and $BTC was one of the first assets to react strongly to the news.
Crypto Meeting at the White House Boosts Bitcoin Once Again
The second wave of Bitcoin’s rise occurred following new news from Washington.
US President Donald Trump reportedly met with representatives of the cryptocurrency industry, including executives from Coinbase, Payward, and Blockchain.com, at the White House.
During the meeting, Trump reportedly mentioned the possibility of the US purchasing a “significant amount” of Bitcoin and urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act before the critical September 15 deadline.
These statements quickly triggered a new wave of buying in Bitcoin. $BTC rapidly rose from around $69,000 to over $71,000, continuing its upward trend and reaching $72,830.
$1.54 Billion Worth of Short Positions Liquidated While Bitcoin Rises
The sudden surge in Bitcoin and Ethereum also led to large-scale liquidations in leveraged markets.
In the last 24 hours, a total of $1.76 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated in the cryptocurrency market, with $1.54 billion of this amount consisting of short positions. The amount of long positions liquidated was recorded as $219.52 million.
In the last 12 hours, $512.81 million worth of short positions were liquidated, bringing the total liquidation to $612.17 million. In the last four hours alone, $96.75 million worth of short positions were eliminated from the market.
In the most recent one-hour period, a total of $55.24 million in liquidations occurred, with $50.72 million of that coming from investors who took short positions.
With the rise in $BTC and ETH prices, the dollar-denominated value of open positions in the futures markets has also increased significantly.
However, data indicates that approximately 90 percent of the increase in open positions is due not to the entry of entirely new leveraged positions into the market, but rather to the appreciation of existing positions in dollar terms as a result of rising Bitcoin and Ethereum prices.
This suggests that growth in derivatives markets may not represent as large an influx of new speculative capital as it initially appears.
*This is not investment advice.
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