Bitcoin price quickly climbs to $31K, liquidating $100M of shorts

Bitcoin plays shorters for fools as a surge to $30,950 liquidates a huge number of risky positions.

Bitcoin (BTC) passing $30,000 and hitting highs of near $31,000 has caused huge pain for traders betting on a bearish pullback.

Cryptocurrency market overview. Source: Coin360

Data from Cointelegraph Markets, Cryptometer and TradingView confirmed that as BTC/USD peaked at $30,960 on Jan. 2, it liquidated $100 million of shorts.

BTC shorters feel the burn... again

Amid highly volatile conditions, Bitcoin attempted to crack $30,000 several times on New Year's Day and overnight before finally clinching the psychologically significant level on Saturday.

BTC/USD 1-minute candle chart. Source: TradingView

The move was accompanied by a bullish charge which soon took the largest cryptocurrency even higher, with press-time levels attempting to crack $31,000.

While many celebrated, however, some were left far worse off than just minutes previously. 

Liquidated short on XBTUSD: Buy 10,000,000 @ 30864 ~ I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

— REKT (@BXRekt) January 2, 2021

"I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" a telling tweet from a bot tracking liquidated trades on derivatives giant BitMEX summarized.

Figures suggest that shorters on BitMEX alone lost $10 million, a grim reminder of the dangers involved in second guessing Bitcoin at crucial levels.

Dogecoin leads sudden altcoin gains

Elsewhere, altcoin markets began to see changes of their own. Dogecoin (DOGE), a curious amover, gained 42% on the day, while leader Ether (ETH) surged back above $750.

Cointelegraph Markets analyst Michaël van de Poppe, who believes that this month will herald the start of a broader "alt season," was characteristically bullish.

"The higher this impulse wave goes for #Bitcoin , the higher the next one will be as well. 2021 is going to be fire," he tweeted as $30,000 hit.

Others in the top ten cryptocurrencies showed less volatile behavior, while nothing could lift XRP, still floundering amid legal problems at major investor Ripple Labs.

from Cointelegraph.com News https://ift.tt/3535vGs