Bitcoin price blasts past $21K as 3-day short liquidations near $300M
Bitcoin (BTC) continued a stunning comeback on Jan. 14 as $21,000 appeared for the first time since early November.
BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingViewBitcoin cracks key trend line for first time since $69K
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it hit highs of $21,247 on Bitstamp overnight.
The pair had faced major suspicion after it began to make up some serious lost ground through the week, with analysts warning that a retracement could occur at any time.
Nonetheless, only brief periods of consolidation accompanied Bitcoin's ascent, with weekly gains sitting at nearly 25%.
In doing so, BTC/USD took out its realized price at $19,700, old all-time high from 2017, $20,000 and the 200-day moving average. The latter saw its first resistance/ support challenge since October 2021, one month before Bitcoin's most recent all-time high.
BTC/USD 1-day candle chart (Bitstamp) with 200-day moving average. Source: TradingView"Similarly to ETH, BTC is gaining momentum," on-chain analytics resource Material Indicators noted about Bitcoin beginning to copy Ether (ETH) strength on short timeframes.
A Twitter post added that price action "has pushed past critical resistance at the 200-Day Moving Average and the 2017 Top (BTC)/ 2018 Top (ETH)."
"Buckle up for volatility!" Material Indicators concluded.
"2 days to go but this weekly btc candle is solid AF breaking very key trendlines and low timeframe momentum is still going strong," popular trader Bluntz meanwhile summarized about the upcoming weekly chart close.
Fellow trader and analyst Rekt Capital went further, drawing comparisons to an event from 2019 that kickstarted an entire Bitcoin bull market after the previous halving cycle's macro low in December 2018.
"Current BTC Weekly Candle is very close to equaling the Weekly Candle from April 2019 that confirmed a new BTC Bull Market," he commented alongside a chart.
BTC/USD annotated chart. Source: Rekt Capital/ TwitterBitcoin short liquidations set 18-month record
In the midst of the now rare upside, Bitcoin unleashed serious pain for bears, liquidating hundreds of millions of dollars in short positions.
Related: Bitcoin gained 300% in year before last halving — Is 2023 different?
According to Coinglass, these totaled around $125 million for Jan. 14 alone, with the period from Jan. 11 onward bringing nearly $300 million of short liquidations.
Including altcoins, liquidations totaled nearly $775 million for the same three-day period.
Crypto liquidations chart. Source: CoinglassCommenting on futures short liquidations, Dylan LeClair, senior analyst at UTXO Management, noted these that hit their highest daily levels since mid-2021.
"July 2021 saw Binance USDT denominated futures going extremely short BTC and paying and arm & a leg to do it," he explained.
"USD denominated shorts getting liq'd is opposite effect of crypto denominated longs unwinding. 30k summer bottom was set day of FTX fresh raise."
Bitcoin futures 24-hour short liquidations chart. Source: Dylan LeClair/ TwitterThe views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.